Management & Strategy

What Does a Typical Fortune 100 CISO Look Like?

What does a CISO look like? You may think that’s a tough question–and it is. But the folks at cybersecurity firm Digital Guardian have done some research and profiled the typical CISO at a Fortune 100 enterprise.

Mike Lennon

March 17, 2016

Not surprisingly, Digital Guardian found that most CISOs were overwhelmingly male at 89 percent. In terms of education, 85 percent had at least a Bachelor’s degree, while 40 percent also had a Master’s degree. Just and a few had a PhD or JD, they said.

The top three fields of study for these CISOs were business, information technology/information security, and computer science.

Of the Fortune 100 CISOs they looked at, 80 percent have held their current position for less than five years. When it comes to certification, half have a CISSP certification and 22 of them have a CISM certification. Fortune 100 security leaders hold an average of 2.86 certifications.

Digital Guardian created the infographic below which outlines “the anatomy of a CISO” to sum up their findings in a fun way.

Are you a CISO? Request your invitation to SecurityWeek’s 2016 CISO Forum, taking place at the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay on June 1-2.

Anatomy of a CISO Infographic

Request your invitation to the exclusive 2016 CISO Forum, taking place at the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay on June 1-2.

Written By Mike Lennon

For more than 10 years, Mike Lennon has been closely monitoring the threat landscape and analyzing trends in the National Security and enterprise cybersecurity space. In his role at SecurityWeek, he oversees the editorial direction of the publication and is the Director of several leading security industry conferences around the world.

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