“ MOST CISOS SPEND THEIR TIME TOUTING THE IMPORTANCE OF WHAT IT IS THEY DO , AND THE REALITY IS THAT MOST ADVICE OFFERED BY CISOS FALLS ON DEAF EARS UNTIL THERE IS ACTUALLY A BREACH . THEY ARE THE MOST UNDER-APPRECIATED , AND PROBABLY THE MOST STRESSED OF THE C-SUITE ”
TECHNOLOGY
Cybersecurity , says Cameron , should be viewed with the same importance to CEOs as finance and legal and “ our CEOs should be as close to their CISO as their finance director and general counsel ”.
Though the stats suggest this simply isn ’ t happening . In the financial sector , for example , the majority ( 75 %) of CISOs still report to the CIO rather than the CEO , according to VMWare ’ s Bank Heist report .
Azzopardi agrees , telling Business Chief that while the CISO has certainly become more important than it was previously , it ’ s still not as important as it should be . “ Most CISOs spend their time touting the importance of what it is they do , and the reality is that most advice offered by CISOs falls on deaf ears until there is actually a breach . They are the most underappreciated , and probably the most stressed of the C-suite .”
That ’ s assuming of course an organisation can find a CISO . According to Gartner ’ s Research VP Peter Firstbrook , “ 80 % of organisations tell us they have a hard time finding and hiring security professionals , and 71 % say it ’ s impacting their ability to deliver security projects within their organisations ”.
“ MOST CISOS SPEND THEIR TIME TOUTING THE IMPORTANCE OF WHAT IT IS THEY DO , AND THE REALITY IS THAT MOST ADVICE OFFERED BY CISOS FALLS ON DEAF EARS UNTIL THERE IS ACTUALLY A BREACH . THEY ARE THE MOST UNDER-APPRECIATED , AND PROBABLY THE MOST STRESSED OF THE C-SUITE ”
JEAN-MICHEL AZZOPARDI CEO , KRALANX CYBER SECURITY
172 June 2021