Data loss is a serious concern for enterprises these days. This year alone, cybercriminals have executed 858 separate attacks and stolen more than 29 million records, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.
With this surge, many organizations have sought out business leaders whose responsibilities are tied solely to the protection of precious digital assets. These executives normally carry the title of chief information security officer and oversee cross-functional teams that include information technology personnel and departmental security auditors.
For the human resources personnel tasked with recruiting these individuals, the interview process may seem a little daunting. What exactly do you ask a data security specialist? Here are two essential interview questions you should be posing when screening candidates for CISO:
What is your vision for data security in the organization?
As you can imagine, guarding company data against hackers requires serious technical skills. However, you're not hiring an obsessive keyboard jockey – you want someone who has the planning and executive skills to oversee an entire data security apparatus, the International Data Group reported. Strong candidates will skip the IT jargon and pitch an aggressive strategy they can easily articulate to their C-level peers.
"You're not hiring an obsessive keyboard jockey – you want someone who has planning and executive experience."
How does your data security experience translate to our industry?
Effective security schemes aren't one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, they are tailored to sector-based user patterns and take into account unique regulatory concerns.
With this in mind, be sure to ask candidates how their past experience has prepared them to address the specific data security problems that affect your industry, TechTarget advised.
Now that you're prepared for the interview process, it's time source possible CISO candidates. Your best bet is a global executive search firm like YES Partners. Our experienced executive search consultants can put you in touch with data security experts with the executive experience and technical skills to effectively protect company assets.
To see some of the roles we have already successfully placed, click here.
Finding people is easy, but finding the RIGHT people is not. YES Partners helps companies FIND the right people for all company functions, across many industries.