back to article Average North American CISO pay now $565K, mainly thanks to one weird trick

A survey of nearly 700 CISOs in the US and Canada has found their pay has risen over the past year to an average of $565,000 and a median of $403,000, with the top 10 percent of execs pulling in over $1 million. (That's about £426,000, £304,000, and £754,000, respectively.) The data showed that by far the most effective way …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I call BS

    That has to be a response from only the most wealthy companies in the world.

    I do all the work of a CISO and make less than 100k, I see job postings for Sr CISO for 100-250k

    Got some great scammers out there milking their companies.

    I'm ready to walk, not due to money, but stress, and another 300k wouldn't' change that. But, maybe I would hire someone to help me.. but its not happening.

  2. AlanSh

    CISO?

    Must be somethig unique to the USA - what's CISO?

    Alan

    1. captain veg Silver badge

      Re: CISO?

      French for scissors.

      -A.

      1. Korev Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: CISO?

        > French for scissors.

        Cutting...

    2. Korev Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: CISO?

      Chief Information Security Officer

      (I guess)

    3. doublelayer Silver badge

      Re: CISO?

      Chief Information Security Officer. It's sometimes also CSO (Chief Security Officer). When you already have a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) but they don't know about security, you need another person. What they actually do varies a lot. Sometimes, the C?O people are actually doing some task related to the company. Sometimes, they're just management, so the CISO doesn't actually know about security, they're just the person to whom the security managers report. So while I can expand the acronym for you, I can't actually explain what these people are doing because they're probably doing different and mostly incomparable things for their salaries. Generally the only commonality is that if they get hacked very badly, that's the person who gets fired. Whether that makes sense is also highly variable.

      1. Caver_Dave Silver badge

        Re: CISO?

        "Generally the only commonality is that if they get hacked very badly, that's the person who gets fired."

        Should be the one going to jail - then you might get proper security for the high wages, rather than just a gravy-train.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: CISO?

          That seems unfair, if the CEO, their boss, denies the CISO's requests for increasing funding for security.

        2. TeeCee Gold badge
          Facepalm

          Re: CISO?

          I do hope that you get burgled, all your crap gets stolen and you also get thrown in jail for not having the very best bolts and locks on all your doors and windows.

  3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Going into the office gets a pay rise of 6% as opposed to 5%, leaving or threatening to do so gets a rise of about 20%. No point in staying to argue the toss about going into the office.

  4. DS999 Silver badge
    Devil

    They get a half million bucks a year

    Despite all the security breaches they oversee? Despite the countless millions their employers end up paying out to ransomware criminals?

    Damn I wish I could get paid a half million to be bad at my job, I might un-retire for that!

  5. Chris 239

    Probably inversely proportional to competency?

    I wonder how many of those seat fillers actually have a clue and how many just belong to the same club as the CEO?

    I expect their pay is inversely proportional to their competency as well in many cases.....

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