Making Cyber-Risk a Core Board Responsibility 

Cyber-security has changed significantly over the past few years. What was once viewed as a technical issue, owned by IT and managed in the background, is now a strategic business risk with the potential to disrupt revenue, damage reputation, and undermine operational resilience. Increasingly, cyber-incidents don’t just cause inconvenience. They halt operations, delay customer deliveries, trigger regulatory scrutiny, and create lasting consequences for trust and brand. 

 

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre reported dealing with a record 204 nationally significant cyber-attacks in the year to September 2025, more than double the 89 handled the previous year, averaging almost four major incidents every week.Meanwhile, household names such as Jaguar Land Rover, Marks & Spencer, and Co-op have all faced cyber-incidents that made the national news and had tangible operational and commercial impact. 

 

This is the reality boards now operate in. Cyber-risk has moved into the boardroom, whether organisations are ready for it or not.

 

 

Why Cyber-Risk is a Board Responsibility  

Cyber-incidents today are not isolated IT failures. They are enterprise-wide events that can affect business continuity, customer trust, financial performance, and regulatory exposure. A recent incident we were involved in illustrates why: an organisation experienced what initially appeared to be a contained security event. Within hours it became a leadership issue. 

 

Decisions were required on whether to shut down systems to prevent wider spread, how to communicate with customers, what level of disruption was acceptable, and whether legal and regulatory notifications were triggered.  

 

The technical response was only one part of the challenge. The bigger challenge was making time-critical decisions with imperfect information, under pressure, and with reputational impact at stake. Ultimately, cyber-risk is now comparable to health and safety or financial controls. It is a core governance responsibility, not an IT problem.

 

 

Aligning Cyber-Security With Business Strategy 

Cyber-security is most effective when it is aligned to business strategy, not treated as a technical afterthought. If an organisation is pursuing digital transformation, expanding into new markets, or modernising its IT estate, security must evolve in step to enable progress safely and at pace. The same applies to cost optimisation. Cutting controls or delaying investment may reduce spend in the short term, but it often increases risk and can lead to far higher costs when an incident occurs. 

 

Boards should therefore view cyber-security as a strategic enabler that protects revenue, preserves customer trust, and safeguards operational resilience. This starts with prioritisation. Rather than investing based purely on technical severity, organisations should focus investment on the areas that matter most to the business. The right question isn’t “how critical is this vulnerability?” but “what would be the impact if this system or data was compromised?” When security is framed in business terms, better decisions follow. 

 

 

Changing the Metrics

A common barrier to board engagement is how cyber-risk is reported. Many organisations still rely on technical KPIs that demonstrate activity rather than risk. Metrics such as patch counts, phishing emails blocked, or number of alerts investigated may be useful operationally, but they rarely help directors make informed decisions about resilience or investment. 

 

Boards need a small number of measures that translate cyber-security posture into business impact. This could include the organisation’s exposure to key scenarios (e.g., ransomware or data loss), estimated financial impact of downtime, recovery readiness, time to detect and respond, and evidence that critical systems and data can be restored quickly. It may also include risk reduction over time, improvements in control maturity, and customer trust protected through strong incident handling. 

 

When metrics are framed in business terms, board discussions become clearer, prioritisation improves, and investment decisions are made with greater confidence. 

 

 

Proactive Engagement, Not Crisis Management  

Cyber-risk becomes far more manageable when boards engage with it proactively, rather than only discussing it after an incident. Too often, cyber-security appears on the agenda once a year, or only when something goes wrong. That approach leaves leaders making high-stakes decisions under pressure, with limited shared understanding of risk, priorities, or preparedness. 

 

A more mature approach is to build a consistent governance cadence. This might include quarterly board updates focused on the most material risks, progress against key initiatives, and readiness against priority scenarios. It should also include annual (at a minimum) tabletop or crisis simulation exercises so executive teams rehearse decision-making, escalation, communications, and recovery planning. 

 

Regular engagement keeps cyber-risk visible and actionable. It allows boards to make informed investment and prioritisation decisions, identify gaps early, and build confidence that the organisation can respond quickly and effectively when the inevitable happens. 

 

 

Telling a Business-Focused Cyber Story  

Boards respond to relevance and clarity. Cyber-security leaders are most effective when they frame cyber-risk in terms that align to business priorities: protecting revenue, ensuring operational resilience, safeguarding reputation, and maintaining customer trust. Rather than leading with technical detail, the conversation should focus on the outcomes that matter most, such as what could disrupt the organisation’s ability to operate, deliver services, or meet customer commitments. 

 

When cyber-risk is positioned in this way, it becomes a leadership issue rather than an IT discussion. Importantly, cyber-security is not only about defence. When embedded into business planning, it enables safe innovation, supports digital transformation, and creates the confidence needed to grow sustainably without exposing the organisation to unacceptable risk. 

 

 

Embedding Cyber-Security Into Board Governance  

Cyber-security is now a core part of corporate governance. Boards do not need to become technical experts, but they do need to treat cyber-risk with the same seriousness as financial controls, health and safety, or operational resilience. That means making it a standing agenda item, aligning security investment to business priorities, and measuring progress in business-relevant terms. It also means ensuring the organisation can detect threats quickly, respond decisively, and recover safely when incidents occur. The organisations that perform best are those that build preparedness and clarity before a crisis forces it. The call to action is simple: elevate the conversation, strengthen accountability, and build resilience at the highest level.

 

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Mark Robertson is CEO and Co-Founder at Acumen Cyber 

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and filadendron