IT security chiefs can make big bucks but are they happy?

The top IT security chiefs make salaries that can run over $1 million per year, but are they happy? Ponemon Institute, which interviewed about 700 security professionals in the top IT security spot at their companies to find out, learned they make big bucks but the job often feels stressful and isolated.

Ponemon Institute conducted interviews with 133 individuals who are “chief information security officers” (CISO), while the remainder at these U.S. based companies had assorted IT security job titles, all with top responsibility for data security. Ponemon, who conducted the research with SecureWorld, found median salary range for these security professionals was between $250,000 to $300,000 but there were those whose salaries soared far above, to over $1 million.

“There was quite a bit of variance,” says Larry Ponemon, CEO and founder of the research firm, about the approximately 700 IT security chiefs, noting that at the low end, salaries were about $188,000 and at the high end, even hit $1.2 million. CISOS at large companies and in certain industries such as tech and communications, for example, tended to see substantially higher salaries than those in other industries, such as retailing, he pointed out.