44% of CISOs rank board or executive expectations as their number-one stressor.

95% of Fortune 500-size CISOs engage regularly with the full board and/or board subcommittees.

68% of Fortune 500-size CISOs engage with board subcommittees at least quarterly.

34% of Fortune 500-size CISOs meet with the full board at least quarterly.

Boardroom alignment with CISOs has declined from a high of 84% in 2024 to 64% this year.

79% of global technology leaders believe the focus on AI has raised their profile at the board level. This is up from 60% in 2024

Nearly all CIOs regularly report to the board on ROI.

83% of security leaders participate in board meetings "somewhat often" or "most of the time".

51% of CISOs see upskilling or reskilling security employees as a priority, versus 27% of boards.

46% of CISOs said attaining security milestones was indicative of their success, compared to only 19% of board respondents.

36% of CISOs consider contributing to revenue growth initiatives a priority compared to 24% of board members.

CISOs with good board relationships are more likely to be given the ability to pursue 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).

Only 47% of CISOs engage with their boards on a monthly or quarterly basis, and 42% meet with their boards on an ad hoc basis, if at all.

57% of CISOs prioritize regulation and compliance knowledge, compared to 44% of board members.

29% of CISOs say they receive the proper budget for cybersecurity initiatives, compared to 41% of board members who think cybersecurity budgets are adequate.

More board members than CISOs want CISOs to develop certain skills: Business acumen: 55% of board members vs 40% of CISOs, emotional intelligence: 45% of board members vs 35% of CISOs, Communication: 52% of board members vs 47% of CISOs.

52% of CISOs consider innovating with emerging technologies a priority, compared to 33% of board members.

15% of CISOs ranked compliance status as a top performance metric, compared to 45% of boards.

Only 29% of CISOs say their board includes at least one member with cybersecurity expertise.

When there is a CISO on the board, 80% of boards report excellent or very good working relationships with CISOs in setting and aligning on strategic cybersecurity goals, versus 27% when there isn't a CISO on the board.