How to know you’re a real-deal CSO — and whether that job opening truly seeks one
Recruiters of senior-level IT professionals often say that a truly skilled and experienced CSO is among the hardest of all IT roles to fill. The reason is due to the increased responsibility placed on these key employees, who are often part of the C-suite and may even report directly to the CEO.
Unfortunately, this can place significant pressure on an organization to hire quickly, perhaps short-changing the vetting process. Likewise, security pros might be tempted to oversell their skills and knowledge, and mislead an employer on what value they can truly bring to the role.
With both scenarios in mind, CSO asked senior technical recruiters and current CSOs how individuals and organizations alike can avoid CSO title inflation and know whether an IT security leader is the “real deal.” Shared insights reveal that a successful CSO is someone equally proficient in technology solutions, business processes, and communication strategies.
“A strong leader moves past security for security’s sake and masters risk choreography, which requires the combination of technical fluency and executive judgment,” explains Kanani Breckenridge, CEO and headhuntress at San Diego-based Kismet Search.
“Strong IT security leaders understand the threat landscape deeply enough to make informed decisions and don’t hide behind jargon,” she adds. “Their real value shows up in risk prioritization, clear communication with nontechnical stakeholders, and the ability to translate security into business outcomes. They know when to escalate, when to say no, and when ‘good enough’ is actually the right call.”
Additionally, top-level CSOs understand that their value isn’t in saying “no,” but in engineering the “yes,” Breckenridge explains. They understand their job is not to eliminate risk but to ensure the organization takes the right risks to stay competitive.
Dangers of giving the wrong IT security pro too much clout
The biggest risk, Breckenridge explains, is false confidence, where the organization believes it is safer than it actually is. Beyond the waste of budget, it creates fragility. An inflated leader often builds a “culture of compliance” rather than a “culture of security.” Ultimately, it leaves the company vulnerable to a what Breckenridge calls a “double failure”: You have a massive breach despite having spent lots of money — and having been granted the CSO title.
One example of how an organization may hire or promote the wrong CSO is when they become enamored with security and product technology evangelists who can define and deploy best-in-class security frameworks and architectures. But these individuals may lack a cohesive strategy in integrated communications, collaborative spirit, hiring, comprehensive training, or general business practices, explains Doug Wald, vice president of recruiting at staffing firm Executive Alliance.
Wald says such a mistake is likely to occur when hiring teams focus too much on the security solutions and architectural needs at hand. They may fail to consider the imperatives of a top-line security leader to define, deploy, and optimize mission-critical program development — such as consistent employee and team trainings, legal engagements for privacy, vendor vetting, business continuity, and change processes — as major pillars of a comprehensive security strategy.
“Unfortunately, it is more common than most people would imagine, which is why I get hired to find a replacement,” Breckenridge explains. “It often manifests as ‘crisis-driven authority.’ After a major industry breach, boards often panic and grant a CSO emergency powers. If that leader lacks the maturity to wield that influence, they create a ‘security-industrial complex’ within the company, which can often be expensive, bloated, and disconnected from the product roadmap and IT landscape.”
Striking the right balance of experience and responsibility
Mark G. McCreary, partner and chief AI and IT security officer at Boston-based legal firm Fox Rothschild LLP, has seen both extremes: security being completely sidelined and security professionals given excessive, unjustified authority.
In some firms, a newly appointed CSO might be positioned as a gatekeeper without the necessary governance, run books, or partner alignment to justify that veto power, McCreary explains. This imbalance becomes evident when policies exist, but the firm hasn’t practiced who does what under pressure — whether it’s legal and crisis response, technical actions, communications, or client outreach. Mature organizations proactively assign and rehearse these roles.
Breckenridge agrees, saying, “Many so-called CSOs have never really owned a budget or led through a major data or security incident.”
Considering the high stakes, why would any organization run the risk of hiring an under-experienced CSO? Usually it’s a mix of timing, optics, or a defensive hire that can be more externally driven than what makes sense internally, Breckenridge explains.
For example, an organization may use a CSO title as “audit bait” to satisfy regulators or insurance carriers. In other cases, it’s a retention play; a talented technical architect is given a C-level title to keep them from being poached, despite them having no experience in P&L management, board governance, or organizational design.
Call it a case of title before mandate, McCreary says. A new title might be created to satisfy client questionnaires or for marketing purposes, but the actual authority, budget, and scope of responsibility haven’t caught up.
Experience and skills a CSO should rightly have
Cutting through the hype, what should a top-notch CSO bring to the role?
“A strong leader balances risk and revenue. A true CSO can translate complex cyber, privacy, and AI risks into specific client and matter risks, explaining them in business terms that a partnership easily understands,” McCreary says.
In the case of legal firm Fox Rothschild, this means connecting threats directly to issues like conflicts, privilege, Outside Counsel Guidelines, and ultimately, client trust.
“Effective governance needs to be operational from day one,” McCreary says. “Policy shouldn’t just sit on a shelf; it must be directly linked to practical playbooks, clearly defined roles, and escalation paths that the business regularly practices. Think incident response policies, cyber event frameworks, and data-breach playbooks all working together.
How a CSO can recognize they may have an inflated title
A CSO “imposter gap,” as Breckenridge calls it, usually appears in the boardroom, and when the individual spends more time delivering authority and decisions than delivering outcomes. “If you find yourself speaking only in technical vulnerabilities rather than business liabilities, you’re likely a director with a CSO title.”
As many firms have different job architectures, title standing may also be dependent on the organization, their size and market segment, and overall functions and responsibilities of an IT security professional, Wald explains. Generally speaking, titles should be based on more commonly held competitive benchmarks in the market.
“Usually, when entering into a role, IT security professionals are aware of the title that they are pursuing. It would be contingent on the hiring company to maintain the consistency of the role’s functions rather than evolve into a function that isn’t reflective of the initially stated title and tasks,” Wald says.
To ensure that an employer and a CSO candidate are on the same page, Wald says the security pro “should be encouraged to speak to other immediate team members and partner stakeholders in product strategy, operations, business, finance, and legal teams — to gain insight and perspective on the prospects, needs, roadmap, and related touchpoints to help come to a consensus on the viability of that opportunity.”
How CSOs can be sure they’re the ‘real deal’
IT security leaders can know you’re the real deal when the business seeks your counsel on non-security issues and you are comfortable being challenged regarding other business decisions, Breckenridge explains.
“When a business unit leader asks for your input on a new market entry or an M&A deal because they value your risk-adjusted perspective, you’ve arrived,” Breckenridge says. “You also know you’re ready when you can comfortably accept ‘informed risk’ and feel like you’re fine signing off on a known vulnerability because the business value of a launch outweighs the technical debt.”
Other sure signs that you deserve the title: You can confidently execute the plan. You’re able to initiate an incident call, follow the firm’s IR policy, and execute the breach playbook without creating privilege problems or ethical‑wall violations, McCreary explains.
“You’ve established a cadence that truly moves the needle. You lead security standups and actively participate in AI task forces or subcommittees where decisions result in tangible outcomes, like new policies, controls, or training,” McCreary says. “You effectively educate your stakeholders. You deliver training and practical AI and infosec guidance that the organization genuinely uses.”
Assuring oneself, and the organization, that all is well in the role
To demonstrate both to themselves and the organization that they are right for the role, CSOs should ensure that security strategy, processes, and protective measures are being met, while showing very tight integrations with program leaders in legal, privacy, compliance, and integration and vendor relationships, Wald says.
In the era of the SEC’s new disclosure rules, title inflation is no longer cosmetic, Breckenridge says. It’s a material risk. Holding a CSO title without real authority, budget, or program ownership exposes individuals to accountability for failures they don’t control.
“The strongest security leaders I see are wary of titles without mandate. They care about scope, outcomes, and access, not optics,” Breckenridge says.
To prove their worth, CSOs should move the needle from “incident-free days” to “resiliency metrics,” Breckenridge explains.
“Prove that when things break — which inevitably they will — the recovery time is decreasing and the blast radius is shrinking,” Breckenridge says. “When you can show that security is a frictionless part of the CI/CD pipeline rather than a gate at the end, the organization will trust that the function is healthy. And, peers will seek their input early rather than late, which is often the strongest signal of credibility.”
From a recruiting and career path standpoint, Breckenridge says inflated titles also distort long-term career trajectory. When abilities don’t match the title, it shows up quickly in future interviews, especially at the executive level where outcomes, governance, and credibility matter more than labels.
“The key point being that the market is an objective judge,” Breckenridge says. “When leaders interview for their next role, they’re assessed on what they’ve actually owned, influenced, and delivered. Inflated titles tend to deflate fast when examined against real outcomes and operating experience.”
