CIO and CISO Survival Skills
The American reality TV show Survivor is the inspiration for this chapter. In this series, a group of diverse strangers are castaways on a remote island or setting. They must fend for themselves, covering all of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, and so on (Note that I will be referring to this as Maslow’s theory). Likewise, in a corporate setting, the CIO and CISO will need to adapt and figure out their own survival. Yes, you are on top of the pyramid and in the lead, but to retain this position in the long term will involve survival skills. Unlike other senior roles and your peers, there are higher and perhaps unreasonable expectations of this position.
The complication with CISOs is they are required to protect an enterprise; however, they do not control every facet of that organization, including staff behavior, user-defined systems, and adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) providers...
