State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

The Misguided Search for Cybersecurity’s Purple Unicorn

Governing: An executive recruiter asked me recently if I was interested in a chief information security job she was trying to help a large government organization fill. Even though I'm not in the job-search mode, I'm always interested in hearing about new opportunities and often know friends and colleagues who are looking. So after I let her know I wasn't a candidate, she described the role, reeling off a long list of personal qualifications, certifications, academic degrees and professional experiences — a collection of requirements that would be virtually impossible to find in a single individual.

Over the years I've developed an intuition about the way people interview, and it became obvious that the organization didn't really understand what it wanted or even what the role of a CISO should be.

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