What makes a typical information security chief?

Major data breaches continue to highlight how essential it is for businesses to secure their systems, and as a result many organizations are looking to recruit information security officers.

But what should they be looking for? What are the traits that the top information security professionals share? Data loss prevention specialist Digital Guardian has produced an infographic based on research into the CISOs and security leaders at Fortune 100 companies which throws up some interesting results.

Information security seems to be an overwhelmingly male profession, with only 11 of security leaders being female. Although most are qualified to at least bachelor's degree standard, qualifications in information security and indeed computer science are less common than those in business. However, 59 percent did begin their careers in IT or IT security.

CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) qualifications are held by more than half of Fortune 100 security leaders. The dynamic nature of the industry is also underlined by the fact that a large majority of CISOs have only been in their jobs for between one and five years.

You can see more details in the full infographic below.

Infographic by Digital Guardian