Can you walk execs through your digital exposure in a way that gets attention and agreement instead of blank stares? asks Tim Grieveson, CSO at the platform ThingsRecon. Reframe technical risk as business impact, is his advice.
Let’s face reality. Nobody in the boardroom cares about your firewall logs, the latest malware variant, or how many phishing emails were flagged last week. The executives around that table want to know what keeps the business running, what might bring it down, and how exposed they are in the meantime. If your cyber update doesn’t answer that in the first 30 seconds, you’ve already lost them. Still, far too many security leaders walk into those meetings armed with jargon, dashboards, and red alerts. It’s time for a better approach. We need messages that cut the fear, skip the fluff, and actually connect with a business audience.
Cybersecurity used to be all about the tech, like firewalls, patching, and detection. Now it is about resilience, trust, and staying aligned with the goals of the business. CISOs and security leaders are no longer just the IT department’s last line of defence. They are business enablers. That requires understanding how the business works and speaking in terms that matter commercially, operationally, and reputationally. So instead of talking about zero days or obscure CVEs, ask questions that matter to leadership. What effect will a security incident have on uptime. Are we at risk of fines. Could this erode customer trust. How badly would it affect revenue or growth.
When security leaders speak in those terms, outcomes, exposure, and impact, they earn a platform and are taken seriously. If they don’t, they stay siloed and security remains viewed as a cost or a blocker. There is also a regulatory shift happening that boards can’t ignore. DORA, NIS2, the SEC — these are not just acronym soup for CISOs. They come with consequences. Fines, accountability, increased reporting, and real operational impact. That has finally grabbed the attention of senior leadership. Which means there is now an opportunity for CISOs to lead the conversation and shape business decisions. But that only works if you can explain technical risk in a business context. Can you walk executives through the current exposure in a way that wins their confidence instead of their confusion.
This is where visibility counts. You need to know not just what lives inside your network, but what’s connected from the outside. That includes infrastructure, third parties, suppliers, APIs, dormant domains, and forgotten tools. If it is visible, it is vulnerable. And if it is vulnerable, it must be addressed. Boards do not want to be scared. They want a story they can act on. A spreadsheet full of vulnerabilities will not change minds. But a short and sharp example, like a misconfigured dev tool on a forgotten subdomain leading to a ransomware attack that shuts down logistics across three regions, will land. That will get attention, funding, and support.
Stories matter because they make security real. They show the ripple effects. Lost revenue. Regulatory fallout. Brand damage. Customer churn. Climate concerns. Demoralised staff. Budget pressure. Once the why is understood, it is far easier to build support for what needs to happen next. You do not need to oversimplify. You need to translate. Swap “we detected 27 CVEs related to outdated Apache servers” for something like “we found a legacy system that could be used to access customer data. We are prioritising it because it connects to our compliance obligations and could damage revenue and trust if it is breached.” Same substance. Different result.
Even better if you can benchmark your organisation against peers or run a simple simulation. What would a ransomware attack really cost. How long would recovery take. What fines might apply. How much customer trust would be lost. Real numbers help turn vague concerns into real urgency. This shift in mindset is not just a job for CISOs or security teams. Boards need to stop treating security like a special guest at the table. If they are accountable for resilience, then they must engage in it too. The best organisations bring business and security together. Not through reports and red flags, but through shared priorities and ongoing conversations.
Security is not a blocker when it is done right. It is a green light. In a room full of risk, revenue, and reputation, the smartest thing a CISO can offer is clarity so your next product launch, partnership, or service rollout does not collapse because of a breach in your supply chain or a missed vulnerability.
