CISOs Hit the Bottle as Workplace Pressures Build

UK and US CISOs are facing burnout as they struggle to cope with escalating cyber-threats, insufficient budgets and a lack of engagement from the board, according to Nominet. The DNS security provider commissioned Osterman Research to poll over 400 security bosses on both sides of the Atlantic for its report, Life Inside the Perimeter: Understanding the Modern CISO. It found that the stresses of the modern role are increasingly taking their toll on CISOs’ personal and professional lives. Almost all (91%) respondents said they suffer moderate or high stress, with 60% saying that they rarely disconnect from their job — that’s despite most (88%) already working over 40 hours per week. Part of this stress is caused by the pressure of keeping threats at bay: 60% of respondents admitted to finding malware which had been there for an unknown period of time. Nearly a third (32%) said that they’d lose their job or receive an official warning in the event of a breach. However, a large part of the stress CISOs feel they’re under appears to stem from the attitudes of the board.