Close Menu
  • News
  • Home
  • In Profile
  • Finance
  • Legal
  • Technology
  • Events
  • Features
  • Wellbeing & Mental Health
  • Marketing
  • HR & Recruitment
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
Trending
  • ClearCourse appoints new Chair of the Board, Simon Black
  • Lessons From Grenfell Are Still Being Learned
  • Raising Money Where It’s Needed: Westspring Pledges To Raise £50,000 For Charity
  • The True Cost Of Leasing: Why SMEs Are Turning To Serviced Offices
  • 5 ways employers can supercharge their workforce with apprenticeships
  • Take Control of Your Business Finances: “Know Your Numbers” Workshop
  • Planned or reactive maintenance: Which is best for your business?
  • Putting information security first is your first step to building digital trust.
X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
SME Today
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
  • News
  • Home
  • In Profile
  • Finance
  • Legal
  • Technology
  • Events
  • Features
  • Wellbeing
  • Marketing
  • HR & Recruitment
SME Today
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
You are at:Home»Technology»Boardroom Lingo: How CISOs Can Speak the Language of Risk and Resilience 
Cyber security and protection of private information and data

Boardroom Lingo: How CISOs Can Speak the Language of Risk and Resilience 

0
Posted By sme-admin on May 2, 2025 Technology

By Tim Grieveson, CSO and EVP Information Security at ThingsRecon

It’s high time we talked about the changing face of cybersecurity leadership. It used to be that the CISO was the security gatekeeper – buried in firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and policy enforcement. But trust me, those days are long gone. Today’s CISO has one foot in the data centre and the other in the boardroom. They are expected to understand the threat landscape, manage growing technical complexity, implement and enforce new security standards, and, on top of all that, translate it into something the business can act on. It’s not enough to simply “do security” – it must be done in a language that other decision-makers with a seat at the head table can understand.

This issue is being driven by a regulatory wave that’s washing over every sector, from finance and healthcare to energy and manufacturing. Frameworks like DORA and NIS2 demand more from executives and board members who are directly accountable for cyber risk. For instance, DORA reserves the right to fine EU businesses 2% of their global revenue or €10 million – whichever is higher – for non-compliance. This accountability changes everything. It means CISOs must step out of their cyber comfort zone and become strategic storytellers, bridging the gap between cybersecurity and businesses priorities like risk, resilience, and the bottom line. If it sounds like CISOs are getting singled out here, think again. It also means the boardroom can no longer afford to treat cybersecurity as someone else’s problem. The future belongs to organisations where technical and business leaders meet in the middle – and speak the same language.

Stepping into the boardroom

Cyber risk doesn’t always look like a firewall misconfiguration or a zero-day exploit. More often, it hides in plain sight – the shadow IT tools no one’s tracking, duplicated systems nobody’s using, or legacy infrastructure still propping up core services. This is what we really mean when we talk about technical debt. It’s not just outdated systems; it’s the accumulation of past decisions that made sense at the time but have since become blind spots. And the problem with blind spots is that, well, we’re blind to them – until it’s too late. For CISOs trying to keep up with regulatory expectations, evolving threats, and budget pressures all at once, understanding where that debt lives is the first step toward visualising risk in a way that other members of the C-suite will care about.

That starts with visibility. Not just internal visibility, but external as well, because you can’t defend against what you can’t see. The most effective CISOs are leaning on practices like external attack surface management (EASM) to build a full inventory of internet-facing assets, third-party connections, and potential entry points. From there, they are mapping those risks back to critical business systems, prioritising them based on impact, and tying remediation efforts to measurable outcomes like operational continuity, regulatory compliance, or customer trust. It’s a shift away from “we need to patch this vulnerability” toward “here’s what’s at stake if we don’t.” And that’s the language that gets attention beyond the security team.

Meeting in the middle

Cybersecurity teams live in a world of threat vectors, CVEs, zero-days, and MITRE matrices. The board lives in a world of revenue forecasts, regulatory exposure, and brand equity. It’s not that they don’t care about security; it’s that they only really need to care about what it means for the business. And that’s exactly why security leaders must become translators. The challenge is crossing that bridge without diluting the message. Boards don’t need the intimate details. They need a clear picture of potential business impact: how a breach might affect uptime, compliance, reputation, or shareholder confidence. Now more than ever, especially with regulations like NIS2 holding the executive leadership team’s feet to the fire, boards are looking for clarity. Not scare tactics, not jargon – just stuff they can run with.

That means changing how information is framed and presented. Forget dashboards filled with red alerts and acronyms. CISOs and their teams must show how cyber risk aligns with strategic objectives, and how security investments protect the things that matter most. Some CISOs are using security ratings, benchmarking data, or external audits to show where the organisation stands relative to peers. Others are drawing on real-world scenarios to make abstract risks tangible – “could that happen to us?” A ransomware simulation that walks the board through a potential outage, including cost implications and reputational damage, can do more to move the needle than a hundred technical slide decks. Because once the board understands the “why,” the “what” and “how” become much easier to support.

Here’s the thing: the most effective CISOs today aren’t just securing infrastructure, they’re securing trust. That means listening to business priorities, speaking in outcomes, and using narrative to drive meaningful discussions around risk and resilience. Because in a world where cyber threats are business threats, the ability to communicate is just as critical as the ability to defend.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Putting information security first is your first step to building digital trust.

MPs bring Google training to regions outside London

AI isn’t just for the big players: How SMEs can effectively leverage AI

Comments are closed.

Follow SME Today on Linkedin and share all the topics you find interesting
ISO/IEC 27001 roadmap: A practical guide for UK SMEs
ISO/IEC 27001 roadmap: A practical guide for UK SMEs
Are you a Company Director?
Are you a Company Director - Verify your identity
Personal Pension offer
Events Calendar
    • Marketing
    September 9, 2025

    SEO 101 for SMBs: Reaching Customers with the Right Visuals

    August 29, 2025

    OneMetric forms strategic partnership with RevOps expert to drive UK growth

    • Finance
    September 17, 2025

    Take Control of Your Business Finances: “Know Your Numbers” Workshop

    September 16, 2025

    Why the crackdown on late payments could be a turning point for SMEs

    • People
    September 18, 2025

    ClearCourse appoints new Chair of the Board, Simon Black

    September 11, 2025

    New Chief Revenue Officer joins CBS to drive strategic growth

    • Health & Safety
    September 18, 2025

    Lessons From Grenfell Are Still Being Learned

    September 2, 2025

    1 in 3 employees anxious about lack of first aiders at work

    • Events
    September 9, 2025

    Nominations for the 2026 Bold Woman Award by Veuve Clicquot open

    July 22, 2025

    South West Expo Delivers Outstanding Event at Swindon’s STEAM Museum

    • Community
    September 18, 2025

    ClearCourse appoints new Chair of the Board, Simon Black

    September 18, 2025

    Raising Money Where It’s Needed: Westspring Pledges To Raise £50,000 For Charity

    • Food & Drink
    August 22, 2025

    How to get stocked by major retailers as an SME

    July 18, 2025

    Warning to Small Businesses Over New Food Waste Regulations

    • Books
    September 3, 2025

    New book on conquering fear of public speaking

    August 7, 2025

    Learning to Leave a Legacy in Business

    The Newsletter

    Join our mailing list for the best SME stories, handpicked and delivered direct to your inbox every two weeks!

    Sign Up
    About

    SME Today is published by the same team who deliver The Great British Expos’. We have been organising various corporate events for the last 10 years, with a strong track record of producing well managed and attended business events across the UK.

    Join Our Mailing List

    Receive the latest news and updates from SMEToday.
    Read our Latest Newsletter:


    Sign Up
    X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    Categories
    • Books
    • Community & Charity
    • Education and Training
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Features
    • Finance
    • Food and Drink
    • Health & Safety
    • HR & Recruitment
    • In Profile
    • Legal
    • Marketing
    • News
    • People
    • Property & Development
    • Sponsored Content
    • Technology
    • Transport & Tourism
    • Wellbeing & Mental Health
    • ABOUT SME TODAY: THE GO TO RESOURCE FOR UK BUSINESSES
    • Editorial Submission Guidelines
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    Copyright © 2025 SME Today.
    • ABOUT SME TODAY: THE GO TO RESOURCE FOR UK BUSINESSES
    • Editorial Submission Guidelines
    • Privacy
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.