CISOs hold important responsibilities to keep an organization and sensitive data safe, and the economic downturn is adding more complications to this role, Lacework co-Founder and CTO Vikram Kapoor argues.

The chief information security officer (CISO) is a senior-level executive role that is responsible for developing, implementing, and maintaining organizations' security programs to protect their data, system, and other digital assets.

“The role of the CISO has been growing in importance for a while now as companies increasingly recognize the importance of securing their data,” Kapoor told SDxCentral in an email. “It is one of the hardest jobs in IT, where the number of job responsibilities and the importance of said responsibilities keep increasing.”

CISOs’ role has involved more than addressing security threats and vulnerabilities, they are also responsible for building security programs, ensuring business compliance, hiring the right employees, finding the right security technologies, and more, he noted in a blog post.

The digital and cloud transformation created an ever-changing challenge for CISOs to keep the cloud and hybrid workforce safe. Now with the economic slowdown, their responsibilities become more complex.

“The economic downturn and its resulting impacts on budgets, staffing, and vendors add even more complications as they’re being asked to keep doing more, but with fewer resources,” Kapoor noted.

Meanwhile, security has become a board-level conversation, which puts CISOs under more scrutiny from executives and board leaders.

“Now with fewer resources, these security leaders are still attempting to balance security with enabling innovation even as risks to their organization increase. Their mandate is no longer just about taking an innovative and modern approach to cybersecurity programs,” Kapoor wrote. “It’s now about driving the many risks present in today’s enterprise — from the probability of intrusions, to data exfiltration, and ransomware, etc. — to effectively zero.”

Despite CISOs facing increasing challenges, many of them “have demonstrated outstanding leadership and are transforming industries worldwide with their technical capabilities, interpersonal skills, and security vision and execution,” Kapoor noted.

He listed 50 CISOs and security leaders to watch for 2023, including Blackstone Group CSO Adam Fletcher, Broadcom CTO/CSO Andy Nallappan, Ping Identity CISO Jason Kees, and ZoomInfo Technologies CISO Tomer Gershoni.

Kapoor applauded CISO's future-leaning mindset to focus on emerging technologies and security trends such as the cloud, Kubernetes, serverless, cloud-native protection platforms (CNAPP), and shifting left, while staying close to the security market as it matures.