The Role of a CISO (RSSI) vs Security Expert – Governance Over Operations

By /

Listen to this Post

Featured Image
The distinction between a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO/RSSI) and a Security Expert is critical in cybersecurity governance. A CISO’s role is strategic—focused on risk management, compliance, and governance—while security experts handle operational tasks like firewall management, log monitoring, and patch management.

You Should Know:

Key Responsibilities of a CISO:

1. Risk Management & Compliance

  • Implement ISO 27001, NIS2, GDPR frameworks.
  • Conduct security audits with tools like: 
    lynis audit system
  • Generate compliance reports: 
    openscap xccdf eval --profile stig-rhel7-disa --results report.xml /usr/share/xml/scap/ssg/content/ssg-rhel7-ds.xml

2. Security Policy & Governance

  • Define security policies using Ansible for enforcement: 
    </li>
<li>name: Enforce password policy 
community.general.pam_limits: 
domain: '' 
limit_type: '-' 
limit_item: 'maxlogins' 
value: '3'

3. Incident Response & Reporting

  • Use Splunk or ELK Stack for log analysis: 
    grep "FAILED LOGIN" /var/log/auth.log | awk '{print $1, $2, $3, $9}'
  • Automate alerts with SIEM (Wazuh, AlienVault): 
    wazuh-logtest -f /var/ossec/logs/alerts/alerts.json

4. Security Awareness Training

  • Deploy GoPhish for phishing simulations: 
    ./gophish --config config.json

Security Expert Tasks (Operational Layer):

  • Firewall Management (iptables/nftables): 
    iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j DROP  Block SSH brute force
  • Patch Management: 
    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
  • VPN & Network Security: 
    openvpn --config client.ovpn

What Undercode Say:

A CISO must remain independent from IT operations to avoid conflicts of interest. If reporting to the IT Director (DSI), governance becomes challenging. Instead, the CISO should report to the CEO/Board for unbiased risk oversight.

Expected Output:

  • A CISO focuses on strategy, compliance, and risk.
  • A Security Expert handles firewalls, patches, and logs.
  • Use automation (Ansible, SIEM, Lynis) to bridge governance and operations.

Prediction:

As NIS2 and ISO 27001 compliance grows, organizations will separate CISO roles from IT operations, ensuring unbiased cybersecurity governance.

Relevant URLs:

References:

Reported By: Cyril Pineau – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅

Join Our Cyber World:

💬 Whatsapp | 💬 Telegram

Related Posts: