With cyber risk viewed as a clear and present threat, board members are required to be aware of the risks facing their company in order to steer your company to the most secure route. But this is not always easy.

Historically, cybersecurity was an area of expertise for technologists working in distant server rooms. With the aftershocks of mega security breaches such as Equifax and Colonial Pipeline, however, it’s becoming evident that cyber security is an obvious and current business risk that affects every aspect of an organization.

In the process boards are demanding more from their security and CISOs. Board members need to know how a well-trained security team can defend themselves against sophisticated threats, whether that’s through investing more in new security solutions and making sure that employees are properly educated. And this message should be delivered in a way that is easily understood by nontechnical executives in the boardroom.

One way to accomplish this is by leveraging real-time data and aligning security goals with business objectives. Through regular communication that show the evolution of your security measures, a decreasing risk index, as well as other important metrics, you will be able to provide the board the information they need to drive decisions. Create a narrative instead of just passing along numbers. By sharing a real-life example of the swift actions of boardroom information security your team helped to ward off an imminent threat, you can demonstrate to your board that they are being protected and that their efforts are making an impact.