Chief Security Officer

What Does Chief Security Officer Mean?

A Chief Security Officer (CSO) manages an organization’s security and is the ultimate manager and custodian of an enterprise’s data, infrastructure and entire physical and digital assets. A CSO plans and implements an organization’s security policy, architecture and framework.

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Techopedia Explains Chief Security Officer

A CSO is a top management executive or employee charged with overseeing an organization’s security in its entire operating domain. A CSO’s primary job responsibilities are planning, developing, deploying and maintaining a security architecture that is in line with the business objectives of an organization.

A CSO manages physical and information security (IS). The physical security responsibility includes the implementation of secure access control and authentication mechanisms at all physical or office facilities owned by the organization. IS tasks incorporate network, data and the organization’s other logical or digital assets.

A CSO is different from a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), as the former covers all-encompassing security parameters, whereas the latter only focuses on IT security.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…