For boards with a CISO member, 60% report excellent or very good working relationships when communicating progress against milestones, security goal achievement and plan of record, compared to 16% for boards without a CISO member.

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.

50% of boards with a CISO member report excellent or very good relationships when budgeting adequately to meet goals, compared to 24% for boards without a CISO member.

Despite the increase in budgets and the perception of adequate resources, nearly half of UK cybersecurity leaders, 47%, struggle to engage at the board level.

60% of board members acknowledge that board members with cybersecurity backgrounds more heavily influence security decisions.

Board members with a CISO background report stronger relationships with security teams and feel more confident about the organisation’s security posture.

37% of board members with a CISO background express concern that they are not doing enough to protect the organisation, compared to a survey average of 62%.

29% of CISOs say they receive adequate budget to accomplish their goals, compared to 41% of board members who think the function has enough funds.

Despite the increase in budgets and the perception of adequate resources, nearly half of UK cybersecurity leaders, 47%, struggle to engage at the board level.

CISOs with healthy board relationships report stronger partnerships with IT operations (82% versus 69% of other CISOs) and engineering (74% versus 63% of other CISOs).

When asked what skills CISOs should develop, the biggest gaps in importance include business acumen (55% for boards versus 40% for CISOs), emotional intelligence (45% for boards versus 35% for CISOs) and communication (52% for boards versus 47% for CISOs).