Ciso Job Functions

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. [Wikipedia].

CISO is a key position in an organization and reports directly to either CIO or CEO. What are the primary job responsibilities of a CISO? Below mind map gives a holistic view of the different job responsibilities CISO role should cover.

Selling Information Security Internally

• Value creation
• Aligning with organization strategy
• Management Involvement

Finance

• Business Case
• ROI Analysis
• Budgeting

Architecture

• Network architecture/segmentation
• Application architecture
• Remote access/VPN
• Encryption
• Authentication
• Mobility
• Public/Private/Hybrid Cloud
• Backup

Governance

• Roles and responsibilities assignment
• Resource management
• Key performance Indicators(KPIs)
• Effective reporting

Security Operations-Focusing on the triad of people, process and technology.

Detection

1. SIEM/log management
2. IDS
3. Endpoint Protection/Antivirus
4. DLP
5. Netflow
6. Honeypots
7. Threat Intelligence/Analysis
8. Network behavior analysis
9. Vulnerability lifecycle management
10. Penetration Test

Prevention

1. Firewall
2. IPS
3. WAF
4. Identity Management
5. Anti-Spam
6. Sandboxing
7. Anti-Malware
8. Content Filtering
9. Software Updates/Patches
10. DDoS Protection
11. Hardening
12. Encryption
13. PKI

Incident Management

1. Incident Identification
2. Containment
3. Remediation & recovery
4. Forensic Analysis
5. Identity Management

Accounts management

• Single sign-on/ Two-factor authentication
• Active Directory/LDAP management
• Role-based access
• BYOD
• E-commerce sites
• Mobile applications

Risk Management

• Risk assessment methodology
• Risk identification
• Risk analysis
• Risk evaluation
• Risk mitigation/treatment
• Risk monitoring

Human Resources Management

Compliance

• PCI
• SOX
• HIPAA
• Follow industry specific compliance needs

Project Delivery

• Requirement analysis
• Planning
• Implementation
• Testing/Monitoring
• Certifications & Accreditation

Above pointers can be used by CIO’s/IS Managers for planning & tracking overall security needs of an organization.