The Heidricks and Struggles 2020 NORTH AMERICAN CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER (CISO) COMPENSATION SURVEY has been released and can be found here. It's an interesting read to be sure, particularly for its three flavors of CISO. As security practitioners, it's always nice to be valued.
It brings to mind that quote by the great Hellfighter himself, Red Adair: If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.
If you're trying to find that perfect candidate for an open CISO role, you are almost certainly running up against numbers like those in the survey. The Board is pushing for a lower number and the candidate is pushing for higher. And there you are, stuck in the middle.
Try thinking laterally and consider utilizing a vCISO service instead. Especially for the CISO-plus type of role discussed in the report. If you're a CEO or CIO and you need help on the cybersecurity front, call us. Let's talk about how our vCISO offerings can get you the results you need for substantially less than a FTE CISO. (We can even help if you don't know quite what results you need yet.)