Should CISOs have as much power as CIOs?

With a long parade of damaging and headline-grabbing data breaches these past few years, chief information security officers are suddenly on the rise – and that's as true in healthcare as perhaps any industry. As is the case with so many emerging job titles, the reporting structures vary from hospital to hospital. But what appears to be typical is for CISOs to sit one notch below chief information officer. Yet many CISOs work with executives outside IT, such as compliance, legal, risk management and others. Thus, the question of whether or not it makes practical sense to have the CISO report to – be on the same level as – the CIO is becoming a matter of some debate.