Cybersecurity KPIs: A Smart Framework for Fair Team Evaluation
For CISOs and CTOs who want to fairly evaluate their security teams in 2026, choosing the right cybersecurity KPIs is not an administrative detail but a strategic decision. The wrong metrics can lead your team to engage in counterproductive behavior (closing tickets instead of analyzing threats), while the right metrics show where your investment is actually paying off. The question […]
How to Write a Cybersecurity Job Posting That Actually Attracts the Right Candidates
Anyone who has ever tried to write a cybersecurity job posting that reflects the reality of the Dutch job market knows the problem. The HR Manager gets input from the CISO, the team provides a list of “must-haves,” the recruitment team adds a few more requirements, and the end result is a job posting that no one qualifies for. Two years of SIEM experience, proficient in cloud security in […]
Hiring a Cybersecurity Professional: From Risk to Strategic Move
The question of whether or not an organization should hire a cybersecurity professional from the junior level often elicits the same knee-jerk response in many HR departments: don’t do it—the risk is too great. The scenario that comes to mind is this: a new employee who has to spend six months learning what he doesn’t know, while in the meantime ransomware alerts keep coming in that […]
Cybersecurity Onboarding Plan: The Complete 90-Day Roadmap for a Successful Security Hire
A good cybersecurity onboarding plan isn’t just a welcome email with a short form and a tour of the office. It’s a structured, measurable process that determines whether your new analyst will be delivering work independently within three months—or whether, six months down the line, you’ll still find that they’re struggling. For HR managers and CISOs who have just hired a junior […]
Career Changes into Cybersecurity: What Backgrounds Are Best Suited for Security Roles?
For many Dutch HR departments, recruiting from outside the IT field into cybersecurity is no longer a choice but a necessity. The IT talent pool, which has traditionally been the main source of recruitment, has been fished dry. The question is no longer whether to recruit from outside the IT field, but which talent pool yields the best results. This article compares the statistics with real-world practice and highlights which career […]
Setting Up a Cybersecurity Internship: A Comprehensive Practical Guide
For an increasing number of Dutch companies, setting up an in-house cybersecurity traineeship is the most pragmatic path to securing a sustainable supply of security talent. The market for experienced hires has been picked clean, salaries continue to rise, and the pace at which new threats emerge points to one clear conclusion: in-house training is no longer an experiment but a serious talent strategy. For HR managers […]
Cybersecurity Certification vs. Experience: The Smart Way to Evaluate Candidates
For HR departments, the choice between cybersecurity certification and experience is a daily dilemma that more often than not leads to the wrong decision. A resume with a CompTIA Security+ certification looks appealing. A resume without certifications but with three years of help desk experience sounds less impressive. Yet the hiring outcomes for those two profiles are usually not what the first impression suggests. […]
Cybersecurity in the Boardroom: The Smart Way to Get Your Executive Team On Board
A cybersecurity boardroom strategy that works requires a skill that most CISOs never formally learn: translating security into the language that CFOs and CEOs use to make decisions. Anyone who asks the executive team for a budget for SIEM tools or EDR licenses will receive cautious nods and empty promises. But if you present that same executive team with a quantifiable risk—one with financial implications and concrete […]
Cybersecurity Budget Allocation: Smart Choices for Maximum Impact
Smart cybersecurity budget allocation is not just an Excel exercise but a strategic decision that determines whether an organization will be more resilient next year—or whether it will simply have spent more money. For CTOs and CISOs who need to build or defend their security budgets in 2026, the key lies not in the absolute amount but in the ratio […]
Supply Chain Security: A Smart Training Approach for Your SOC Team
Supply chain security is often presented as a governance issue: vendor questionnaires, contracts, audit reports. In practice, these measures do not prevent attacks. When an attacker gains access through a trusted supplier, it is not your contract but your SOC team that determines whether the attack is detected within hours or only after months. For CISOs and CTOs who truly want to […]