The frequency of updates to boards on cyber security has increased, according to the latest Cyber Directors’ and Officers’ Survey Report by Willis, a WTW business. Last year, the survey illustrated that 20% of respondents only updated their board in response to an incident, which has decreased to 12% in 2025. The number of respondents who update their board on cyber security monthly has increased from 18% to 28% between 2024 and 2025.
The survey gathered responses from a range of sectors, including the services sector (24%) and finance and insurance (19%), with more than half representing for-profit, private companies.
Other key findings from the survey include:
- Sponsorship trends: respondents indicated an increased involvement from an officer outside of senior leadership, which suggested a need to engage both strategic and technical stakeholders to manage cyber risk most effectively.
- Incident response: 80% of respondents indicated that they have put a cyber incident response in place, with more than two thirds indicating that they have completed an incident response exercise in the past 12 months.
- Preparation: 65% of respondents feel that their organization is well prepared to manage a cyber incident effectively (compared with 56% in 2024).
- Cyber risk strategy budget: respondents indicated that cyber security budgets will continue to increase in 2025, but to a lesser extent than 2024 (56% versus 63% respectively).
