---
title: How Do You Say 'CISO'?
description: How do you actually pronounce CISO, the acronym for Chief Information Security Officer? The cybersecurity community weighs in in our poll results.
---

[SecureWorld News ](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news)

# [How Do You Say 'CISO'?](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/how-do-you-say-ciso)

 Written by [Drew Todd](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/author/drew-todd) | Mon | Jan 18, 2021 | 1:30 PM Z

If you work in cybersecurity, you probably already know what CISO stands for: Chief Information Security Officer.

The number and prominence of CISOs continues to grow as organizations get more serious about improving their security posture.

However, a burning question remains: *how do you pronounce CISO?*

CISO falls into the category of acronyms that have more than one correct pronunciation, such as tomato vs. to-mahto, potato vs. po-tahto, caramel vs. car-mel, and data vs. day-tuh.

To get to the bottom of this hot debate, SecureWorld asked security leaders at our [virtual conference series](https://www.secureworld.io/events) how they say CISO. 

## **Survey results: how do you pronounce CISO?**

 There are three main ways that CISO can be pronounced, although perhaps you could come up with more:

- See So
- Sih So / Sisso
- See-Eye-Ess-Oh

So what's the answer to the burning question here? 

Overwhelmingly, SecureWorld attendees voted that "See So" was the correct response. That pronunciation received 72% of the votes.

In second place, with roughly 19% of the votes, was "Sih-So / Sisso." To some, this pronunciation is worth a chuckle.

And in last place, the pronunciation that is least common: just saying the letters C-I-S-O, pronounced "See-Eye-Ess-Oh." We noticed that some of the votes for pronouncing it this way came from those close to retirement and also those nearer the beginning of their information security careers.

### **This is how you pronounce the word CISO**

So there you have it. Our very scientific survey results reveal that "See-So" is the way to pronounce CISO.

Do you agree or disagree? Let us know how you say it in the comments below.

[RESOURCE: The [SecureWorld Virtual Conference Series](https://www.secureworld.io/events)]

[View full post](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/how-do-you-say-ciso)

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