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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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).

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.