15% of CISOs changed employers in 2025, an increase from 11% in 2024.

The top 1% of CISOs earn more than $3.2 million in total compensation, which is approximately 10 times the median and 20 times the bottom 10%.

In 2025, overall CISO compensation increased by an average of 6.7% compared to the previous year.

CISOs who remained at their companies and took on expanded responsibilities saw an average compensation increase of 8.1% in 2025, compared to a 5% increase among those who switched jobs.

70% of CISOs receive equity, which can represent up to half of total pay among top earners.

In 2025, 71% of CISOs received executive perks, an increase from 40% to over 50% this year for D&O insurance.

78% of organizations require IT or security team involvement in final technology purchasing decisions.

87% of CISOs say pressure in their role has increased over the past year.

58% of CISOs say incidents occurred even though their security tools were in place.

Two-thirds of CISOs report feeling burned out weekly or daily.

Boards most often ask CISOs for the following metrics: risk-reduction trendlines (51%), quantified business impact (47%), and incident-response performance metrics (40%).

73% of U.S. CISOs reported facing a significant cyber incident in the past six months.

Nearly 20% of recent incidents reported by CISOs were already AI-related.

56% of CISOs say their security tools don’t integrate fully.

90% of CISOs say their role may be at risk to some degree if a breach were to occur.

13% of CISOs oversee 50 or more security tools.

57% of CISOs report that half or fewer of their security tools deliver measurable Return on Investment (ROI).

82% of CISOs feel confident quantifying risk.

54% of CISOs lack standardized, business-relevant metrics.

40% of CISOs considered leaving their role altogether.