Technology Leader | CDIO | CISO | PhD Researcher | Keynote Speaker | Founder | NED | Thoughts are my own
I keep seeing calls for more CISOs and security specialists at the board level. We need more people to understand cybersecurity and resilience. While I agree in part, this treats the symptom, not the cause. For years, we have produced frameworks, briefings, and control dashboards as if technical fluency alone would lead to better strategic decisions. It does not. Boards are not debating technical nuance; they are weighing market access, operational resilience, brand trust, and valuation. The real gap is not a lack of security knowledge, but a lack of business translation and shared language. Boards rarely need a lesson in cyber. They need clarity on how resilience protects revenue, reduces exposure, and accelerates growth. In short, security must be expressed in the language of business. The most effective CISOs are not technical custodians but strategic partners who turn risk into ROI and controls into competitive advantage. They do not report on compliance or vanity metrics; they demonstrate how security enables strategy. Security’s place in the boardroom will not be earned through education; it will be earned through impact. The real shift is this: stop teaching boards cybersecurity, and start developing security leaders who think, speak, and act like business executives. Only then will security evolve from a technical function into a driver of transformation where boards naturally engage, challenge, and lead on resilience as a core business capability. Security leadership is evolving. The question is, are we evolving with it? I am interested in hearing how your organisations ar bridging the gap between security and business at the board level.
I like the message, and I think it could be TL:DRed as - At the top of the org chart, nobody loses sleep over ransomware or data breaches, unless they move the needle on revenue, EBIT, or liquidity - and are communicated this way. Talk to an executive about ransomware and you’ll get a nod at best. Talk about its impact on revenue, EBIT, and liquidity, you’ll get their full attention.
In my experience from building converged security functions, the shift happens when security teams stop behaving like a technical control owner and start behaving like a commercial enabler. Boards lean in when we talk in their language of business. Trust accelerates growth more than features or fancy widgets.
I think as well that the boards are what makes or breakes business resillience. Too many unfortunately see security as a nuisance and cost. Because they don't know what they don't know. As you said, security must be related to the business.
Most people don’t care about the technology itself—and that’s perfectly fine. We shouldn’t speak to them like they’re tech specialists, because they’re not. What matters is how technology improves business processes, drives outcomes, and what risks or trade-offs come with it. The conversation should always start with business value, not technical details.
Excellent point, Jack — this perfectly captures the real maturity gap. Cybersecurity isn’t struggling because boards don’t “get tech.” It’s struggling because we still speak risk in control language, not in business value. Resilience, when framed in financial, operational, and reputational terms, stops being a cost center — it becomes a growth enabler. Security earns its seat at the table not through compliance, but through contribution.
Jack, you nail the essential paradigm shift. The greatest security leaders no longer translate cyber risk into technical terms—they turn resilience into tangible revenue protection, reputational growth, and operational advantage. This is a call to drive business-informed security culture where risk investment decisions are measured alongside profit centers, not just compliance dashboards. The new metric: how many growth opportunities security actually enables, not just how many incidents it prevents. What practices have you seen succeed at making CISOs true value architects—and at quantifying those results in ways that speak directly to boards?
Brilliantly put, Jack — this is the conversation that truly matters. At PT SYDECO, we’ve built our entire cybersecurity architecture around exactly this principle: turning security from a technical expense into a strategic enabler. With ARCHANGEL 2.0 MiniFW-AI Sectors and RitAPI Guard/Advanced, we give boards and executives what they actually need — not more alerts, but clarity: 🔹 Real-time dashboards that translate cyber posture into financial and operational impact. 🔹 Sector-specific AI models that show how resilience protects revenue and reduces downtime. 🔹 Measurable ROI on prevention versus recovery, visible at board level. Our clients don’t just “have cybersecurity” — they can demonstrate how it strengthens trust, compliance, and market confidence. That’s how security earns its seat at the table: not by teaching the board how firewalls work, but by showing how resilience sustains business value. #CyberResilience #BoardLeadership #Archangel #RitAPI #PTSYDECO #StrategicSecurity
M.S. | CISSP | CCISO | CRISC | Cybersecurity Speaker | Mentor | Board Member
5dTechnical knowledge is the foundation that gives a CISO credibility, but it's not the skill that delivers strategic value to the business. A CISO can have the most advanced security program, but if they can't articulate its value or get buy-in from the board, that program will fail.