Why CISOs Have the Most Stressful C-Suite Jobs

https://www.businessinsider.com/ciso-cybersecurity-jobs-stress-c-suite-2026-5

Publish Date: 2026-05-27 04:17:00

When Chad Kliewer worked as the head of information security at a hospital system, the job became so stressful, his hair didn’t just turn gray, it started to fall out, he says. During his career, he experienced what he now recognizes as work-induced panic attacks from the pressure. The job came with phone calls any hour of the day, fielding IT outages or HIPAA compliance issues, and left him messaging colleagues while out of office and on vacation.

He remembers waking at 3 a.m. to a doctor calling from the rural hospital where the internet had gone out. The doctor couldn’t send the results of a scan to a radiologist, and Kliewer remembers him saying, “I don’t know whether to put this patient on a helicopter or send him home.” As the top, and lone, security worker, Kliewer was on the hook. “I’m not an ER doctor, but yet the ER doctors are depending on my services.”

Immense stress has infected the brains of CISOs (chief information security officers) with malware, and they’re looking to call it quits. The typical tenure of a CISO lasts just 18 to 26 months, compared to nearly five years for other C-suite roles, according to a report from research firm and publisher Cybersecurity Ventures. Half of CISOs say the scope of their job has become unmanageable, and nearly 70% say they’re open to changing jobs or even leaving the CISO role entirely within the next year, according to a report from security research firm IANS.

The job bridges the complex, technical side of a company and its business objectives, from finance to human resources to day-to-day operations. They’re seen as the Department of No, pumping the brakes on AI adoption as white-collar workers plug sensitive data into unauthorized systems, turning to shadow AI in the name of efficiency. Their role has swelled over the past three decades, demanding they meet a burgeoning list of regulatory demands, present increasingly to board members who rarely speak in tech terms, and…

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