The full form of CISO is Chief Information Security Officer.

A chief information security officer (CISO) is the 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.

The chief information security officer (CISO) is the executive responsible for an organization’s information and data security. While in the past the role has been rather narrowly defined along those lines, these days the title is often used interchangeably with CSO and VP of security, indicating a more expansive role in the organization.

Ambitious security pros looking to climb the corporate latter may have a CISO position in their sights. Let’s take a look at what you can do to improve your chances of snagging a CISO job, and what your duties will entail if you land this critical role. And if you’re looking to add a CISO to your organization’s roster, perhaps for the first time, you’ll want to read on as well.

What does a CISO do? Perhaps the best way to understand the CISO job is to learn what day-to-day responsibilities that fall under its umbrella. While no two jobs are exactly the same, Stephen Katz, who pioneered the CISO role at Citigroup in the ’90s, outlined the areas of responsibility for CISOs in an interview with MSNBC. He breaks these responsibilities down into the following categories:

• Security operations: Real-time analysis of immediate threats, and triage when something goes wrong
• Cyberrisk and cyber intelligence: Keeping abreast of developing security threats, and helping the board understand potential security problems that might arise from acquisitions or other big business moves
• Data loss and fraud prevention: Making sure internal staff doesn’t misuse or steal data
• Security architecture: Planning, buying, and rolling out security hardware and software, and making sure IT and network infrastructure is designed with best security practices in mind
• Identity and access management: Ensuring that only authorized people have access to restricted data and systems
• Program management: Keeping ahead of security needs by implementing programs or projects that mitigate risks — regular system patches, for instance
• Investigations and forensics: Determining what went wrong in a breach, dealing with those responsible if they’re internal, and planning to avoid repeats of the same crisis
• Governance: Making sure all of the above initiatives run smoothly and get the funding they need — and that corporate leadership understands their importance