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A chief information security officer (CISO) is a senior-level executive within an organization responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy, and program to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately protected. The CISO directs staff in identifying, developing, implementing, and maintaining processes across the enterprise to reduce information and information technology (IT) risks. They respond to incidents, establish appropriate standards and controls, manage security technologies, and direct the establishment and implementation of policies and procedures. The CISO is also usually responsible for information-related compliance (e.g. supervises the implementation to achieve ISO/IEC 27001 certification for an entity or a part of it). The CISO is also responsible for protecting proprietary information and assets of the company, including the data of clients and consumers. CISO works with other executives to make sure the company is growing in a responsible and ethical manner.
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Typically, the CISO's influence reaches the entire organization. Responsibilities may include, but not be limited to:
- Computer emergency response team/computer security incident response team
- Cybersecurity
- Disaster recovery and business continuity management
- Identity and access management
- Information privacy
- Information regulatory compliance (e.g., US PCI DSS, FISMA, GLBA, HIPAA; UK Data Protection Act 1998; Canada PIPEDA, Europe GDPR)
- Information risk management
- Information security and information assurance
- Information security operations center (ISOC)
- Information technology controls for financial and other systems
- IT investigations, digital forensics, eDiscovery
Having a CISO or an equivalent function in organizations has become standard practice in business, government, and non-profits organizations. By 2009, approximately 85% of large organizations had a security executive, up from 56% in 2008, and 43% in 2006[citation needed] . In 2018, The Global State of Information Security Survey 2018 (GSISS), a joint survey conducted by CIO, CSO, and PwC,[1][2] concluded that 85% of businesses have a CISO or equivalent. The role of CISO has broadened to encompass risks found in business processes, information security, customer privacy, and more. As a result, there is a trend now to no longer embed the CISO function within the IT group. In 2019, only 24% of CISOs report to a chief information officer (CIO), while 40% report directly to a chief executive officer (CEO), and 27% bypass the CEO and report to the board of directors. Embedding the CISO function under the reporting structure of the CIO is considered suboptimal, because there is a potential for conflicts of interest and because the responsibilities of the role extend beyond the nature of responsibilities of the IT group. The reporting structure for the CISO can vary depending on the organization’s size, industry, regulatory environment, and risk profile. However, the importance of information security in today’s businesses has raised the CISO’s role to become a senior-level position.[3]
In corporations, the trend is for CISOs to have a strong balance of business acumen and technology knowledge. CISOs are often in high demand and compensation is comparable to other C-level positions that also hold a similar corporate title.
A typical CISO holds non-technical certifications (like CISSP and CISM), although a CISO coming from a technical background will have an expanded technical skillset. Other typical training includes project management to manage the information security program, financial management (e.g. holding an accredited MBA) to manage infosec budgets, and soft-skills to direct heterogeneous teams of information security managers, directors of information security, security analysts, security engineers and technology risk managers. Recently, given the involvement of CISO with Privacy matters, certifications like CIPP are highly requested.
A recent development in this area is the emergence of "Virtual" CISOs (vCISO, also called "Fractional CISO").[4][5] These CISOs work on a shared or fractional basis, for organizations that may not be large enough to support a full-time executive CISO, or that may wish to, for a variety of reasons, have a specialized external executive performing this role. vCISOs typically perform similar functions to traditional CISOs, and may also function as an "interim" CISO while a company normally employing a traditional CISO is searching for a replacement.[6] Key areas that vCISOs can support an organization include:
- Advising on all forms of cyber risk and plans to address them: vCISOs can assess an organization's cybersecurity risks, develop strategies to mitigate those risks, and implement appropriate cybersecurity measures. They can also provide guidance on incident response plans, business continuity, and disaster recovery planning.
- Board, management team, and security team coaching:vCISOs can work closely with the board of directors, management team, and security team to provide coaching, guidance, and expertise on cybersecurity matters. This includes helping organizations understand the strategic implications of cybersecurity risks, developing cybersecurity policies and procedures, and ensuring that cybersecurity best practices are followed.
- Vendor product and service evaluation and selection:vCISOs can assist organizations in evaluating and selecting cybersecurity products and services, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and security information and event management (SIEM) solutions. They can also help with contract negotiations and vendor management to ensure that organizations are getting the best value from their cybersecurity investments.
- Maturity modeling operations and engineering team processes, capability and skills: vCISOs can assess an organization's cybersecurity maturity level and develop plans to improve processes, capabilities, and skills of operations and engineering teams. This includes conducting cybersecurity assessments, implementing cybersecurity frameworks, and providing training and development programs for staff.
- Board and management team briefings and updates:vCISOs can provide regular briefings and updates to the board of directors and management team on the current cybersecurity landscape, emerging threats, and best practices. They can also assist in developing cybersecurity awareness programs and training for employees at all levels of the organization.
- Operating and Capital budget planning and review:vCISOs can assist in the planning and review of operating and capital budgets related to cybersecurity. This includes identifying and prioritizing cybersecurity investments, developing cost-effective strategies for cybersecurity, and ensuring that adequate resources are allocated to address cybersecurity risks.
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