It is said that 50% of Chief Information Security Officers earn an average annual base salary which is equal to that of other C-level executives. The report, Titled “201 Salary Benchmark Report”, stems from Secure World Insight, indicates that the salary of cyber security professionals is higher than expected.
And the survey is the first one in a new series of quarterly cyber security research reported by Secure World Insight, which is a partnership between Ponemon Institute and Secure World Expo.
The similarity of cyber security professional’s wage can be founded in both the top level areas and organizations. Although their pay is almost the same, 43% people who work in cyber security deem that they are in the most difficult position.
It is unexpected that the most vital factor influencing salary falls to reporting channel. It is not only the greatest rate compensation for CEO, but also the greatest risk of being fired. And the most common direct report for CISOs is not the CEO, but the CIO, taking up 46%.
If a security staff intends to leave an organization, compensation is the most common factor and the lowest paying industry sectors are “Health and Pharmacy”, then the Defense. Followed by Financial Services companies, Communications companies pay the most for their information security staffs. In case of the recommendations from a recent Deltek report on federal cyber security contract spending is followed, the pay of cyber security professionals connected with the Defense industry will increase.
Global organizations and companies who have over 75 000 employees tend to have higher salary. The wage of professionals with certifications is 8.7% higher than those who do not have advanced degrees.
When asked to find out the stumbling block of success, 56% of respondents said that it is due to funding shortage while 42% cited IT complexity and 41% cited lacking qualified personnel. A recent announced training partnership between network security company Fortinet and Willis College indicates one possible method to deal with the latter issue.
Most businesses connected with hosting industry would come to the “Communications” industry sector. Hence, they might among the minority for whom lack of money is not a primary barrier to the success of their security teams. And they are more likely capable of finding and retaining qualified employees. However, cyber security is more important to cloud hosts and related service providers rather than other sectors. Nowadays, security concerns remain one of the most commonly cited barriers to cloud adoption, and companies are experiencing breaches forced to protect their customer relations.