Regulated sectors face strict supervision, sensitive data, and close proximity to management, so security work blends technical control with consultancy, communication, and resilience under stress.

A practitioner described the field as "demanding and interesting": you need to be curious, stress-resistant, flexible, consequent, open, collaborative, and (in international firms) able to work in English. Relevant differences for regulated sectors (banking, insurance, critical infrastructure) include the regulated environment, processing of sensitive data, a strong security culture, proximity to management, being early adopters of GenAI / new ways of working, and heavy consultancy demands. The job is as much about advising the business as configuring tools.

A central Group CISO sets direction, while market-unit and business-unit layers carry the controls down to local CISOs and ISOs near the front line.

* The security org: a Group CISO on top, 2LoD (Risk Management) CISOs per Market and Business Unit, and 1LoD (IT) ISOs running the controls near the front line. *

The structure at Helvetia Baloise (a Swiss insurer present across Europe) layers a Group CISO over 2LoD CISOs for each Market Unit and Business Unit, who in turn oversee 1LoD ISOs (Information Security Officers) at unit level. Group-wide there are roughly 50 security officers for ~22,000 employees, including Group CISO, Group ISOs, Local CISOs, Local ISOs, and a Cyber Defense Team. A separation of 1LoD (IT) and 2LoD (Risk Management) responsibilities was ongoing — meaning operational security ownership is being cleanly split from independent risk oversight.

Tip: "LoD" = Line of Defense; 1LoD owns and runs controls, 2LoD independently oversees risk.

Go deeper:

• Chief Information Security Officer — Wikipedia — Rolle, Reporting-Linien und Verantwortlichkeiten des CISO in der Sicherheitsorganisation.