When CISOs are Heard, the Whole Business Stays Safer

It might seem like a no-brainer. CISOs who sit on boards bring a wealth of insight on everything from the latest cyber threats and compliance regulations to staffing shortages and how their teams are using AI in the SOC. And with ongoing issues such as AI security, global supply chain risks, increased regulatory liability for CISOs, and severe penalties for non-compliance, CISO-board engagement is more important than ever.

While CISOs’ expertise is firmly rooted in cybersecurity, regular interactions with board members give them insight into the business side of the house.   , Those CISOs can then paint an accurate picture of an organization's security landscape, make a better case for future investments, and illustrate how cybersecurity drives the business forward. In short, they bring much needed perspective and expertise to any board of which they are a part of.

These days, CISOs have more of a say in these executive decisions than ever. According to the 2025 Splunk CISO Report, 83% of CISOs now participate in board meetings somewhat often or most of the time. And 60% report that board members with cybersecurity backgrounds have the ability to heavily influence security decisions. 

But when it comes to actually including someone with security acumen, most boards aren’t quite there yet — only 29% of CISOs said their board incorporated at least one member with cybersecurity expertise. Among the reasons for this deficit include, CISOs fall short when explaining the ROI of their investments, or couching their initiatives in business language that helps them connect with their board. 

But there are opportunities for change. Data suggests that when CISOs and boards align, everything from budgets, to greenlights on technology initiatives, to board buy-in on their security strategy, experience an uptick. In short, a strong board-CISO alignment often results in magic. 

Here are a few reasons why board members should consider making room for more security expertise among their ranks. 

1. Boardroom CISOs bolster security confidence

Because of their deep security knowledge, board members with a CISO background are likely more knowledgeable, and more confident, about the organization’s security posture. Having their feet in both worlds allows them to paint an accurate picture to the board — in fact they are far less likely than other board members to express concern that security teams  are not doing enough to protect the organization (37% versus 62% survey average). That kind of confidence goes a long way to establish board trust with security teams, which can give them a big leg up when making a case for future investments, and illustrating how cybersecurity drives the business forward. 

But it’s a virtuous cycle. If you care about security, you will probably have a CISO in your board meetings  regularly, or on the board itself. That will likely help your board to care more about security. However  simply having a CISO on the board isn’t necessarily the hallmark of a security-first company. But while m having a CISO on the board won’t magically make your security better, it does help set the tone for understanding and future investment.

2. Security presence gives CISOs a metric bump

When a board has a CISO or security expert, CISOs get noticeably more mileage out of their relationships — and benefit from many notable security wins, particularly in funding. When their boards had security expertise, CISOs reported better budget that adequately met their goals (50%), compared to boards without CISOs (24%), representing a major win for their teams and the organization’s security investments. 

But security expertise on the board boosts other key metrics for CISOs as well. When planning security strategy, CISOs reported better relationships with their boards when setting and aligning on strategic security goals (80% vs. 27% of boards without a CISO). 

Security expertise on the board also compelled CISOs to report improvements when communicating progress against milestones (60% vs. 16% of boards without a CISO) .

Ultimately, a security expert on the board provides a critical window into what the CISO, and their security teams are doing every day. That means  not only showing up around budget renewal time, but demonstrating ROI and value, and making sure boards understand the real gains. 

But CISOs also have the opportunity to better understand the business and the language their boards speak. Alignment on strategic goals means that CISOs need to pay attention when boards really want them to be reducing compliance risk or planning for quantum migration. The CISOs that benefit the most will be the ones that read the boardroom and get a step ahead. If there’s a new campaign, they can step up by protecting brand reputation. If there’s a new product being developed, they can put team members on the effort to get security roadblocks out the way early.

3. Good board relationships breeds better collaboration, more trust 

Even when boards don’t have a CISO or security expert amongst them, CISOs in good standing with their boardroom peers still reap plenty of rewards. 

It’s not just that CISOs and board members have better mutual relationships with each other when they regularly interface, although that certainly is the case. CISOs with healthy board relationships also benefit from better collaboration throughout the entire organization, reporting particularly strong partnerships with IT operations (82% versus 69% of other CISOs) and engineering (74% versus 63% of other CISOs). This may be because they can effectively communicate the board’s business needs and strategies to more technical departments in a way that connects them to the rest of the organization — and similarly communicate the needs of their more technical peers up the chain. 

Better communication fosters trust — which also portends that CISOs with strong board relationships are extended more leeway to test and explore new technology investments. That includes the ability to  pursue and explore use cases for generative AI, such as creating threat detection rules (43% versus 31% of other CISOs), analyzing data sources (45% versus 28% of other CISOs), incident response and forensic investigations (42% versus 29% of other CISOs), and proactive threat hunting (46% versus 28% of other CISOs). 

Going forward, CISOs have the opportunity to hone their relationships even further. Some of these changes might include:

• Asking CISO friends how they report to the board (actual [anonymised] slides and KPIs)
• Asking a board member for a sponsorship, or even advice about what they expect
• Change perspective from from 'defend the enterprise' to 'protect the revenue,” focusing on how the business makes money and its critical services, 
• Focusing on how to support the operational resilience of the organisation

CISOs are not only hailed as valuable members, they are critical liaisons between the boards and the technical organization. They have the ability to understand the language of technology-driven departments. And more facetime with the board will ultimately give them the ability to translate the business value of those initiatives while championing security in a way that boards can understand. With regular interaction at the board level, CISOs will have even more opportunities to leverage their relationships and lean further into shaping the business with continued investments in cybersecurity. And with myriad benefits to the business and bottom line, boards have shown they are willing to listen. 

To learn more about how CISOs can further build board relationships and learn to speak “board,” download The CISO Report.