engage directly with their CIO or CTO at least monthly. The next most frequent interactions according to IANS figures were with general counsel or head of legal, which 54 percent of CISOs meet with at least monthly, followed by head of product, with which 40 percent of CISOs meet at that same frequency. Elsewhere across the C-suite, just more than a third of CISOs reportedly meet with the CFO at least monthly, while 63 percent said they meet at least quarterly with the CFO. Very similar percentages said they meet with the CEO/COO at least monthly or quarterly, as well as with business unit/P&L leaders. And nearly half (47 percent) of CISOs engage with their boards on a monthly or quarterly basis, showed the IANS survey. The prevalence of interactions between CISOs and both CFOs and legal officers also should not be surprising, as CISOs often get their funding from the CFO, while legal often directs cyber-incident response efforts, meaning these roles truly help CISOs get the job done, argued the Splunk report. According to Splunk field CTO Peter Sprenger, CISOs working closely with the entire C-suite isn’t just about playing nice. It’s about joint accountability, and “it’s a business imperative,” said Sprenger. When a CISO shares some responsibility for business deliverables, and all executives have skin in the cybersecurity game, organizations are better positioned to manage risk and adapt to regulations without sacrificing innovation or business success, Sprenger continued. Establishing shared planning cycles helps cyber defense to become proactive and embedded across the entire business. Joint accountability, according to CISOs surveyed by Splunk, tops the lists of factors in terms of driving value for security initiatives (62 percent), ahead of even security budget and funding (55 percent) and access to security-relevant data (49 percent). At the same time, survey data showed that CISOs who share joint accountability for their security budget with non-technical C-suite peers are more likely to say they can directly correlate ROI to risk mitigation and remediation activities (35 percent versus 25 percent). The same goes for those who work directly with their technical peers on security budgeting efforts (35 percent versus 20 percent). “Such collaboration is required for effectively integrating cybersecurity into business strategy, aligning risk management with organizational priorities and fostering a shared sense of accountability for security outcomes,” said the IANS reports. Indeed, the increasing degree of cross-functional collaboration between CISOs and non-IT business leaders is a direct result of the expanding importance of cybersecurity within business processes and thereby the expanding role of security leaders within business operations. This is more profound nowhere than in the emergence of artificial intelligence. According to the Splunk surveys, a whopping 96 percent of CISOs said they are now responsible for AI governance and risk management, making them the de facto AI policy leaders at their organizations, said Splunk researchers. In many ways, it’s up to CISOs to make sense of the AI madness, strategically embracing AI while building robust guardrails around its use, ensuring that innovation serves security instead of compromising it. “As boards mandate AI use across the business, CISOs must proactively manage risk to safeguard their organizations,” said Splunk researchers. “This means establishing a robust governance framework that enables safe AI, ensuring the pursuit CISOs Collaboration Across the C-suite Joint-accountability with technical C-suite roles (CIO, CTO, etc.) Joint-accountability with other C-suite roles (CFO, Chief Legal Officer, etc.) Joint-accountability with CEO Security operational business risk 78% 29% 56% Key security initiatives 77% 29% 32% Security budget/funding 72% 62% 28% Security relevant data access and quality 68% 35% 46% Operational workflows 57% 27% 48% Key business initiatives 55% 46% 37% KPIs 36% 53% 31% Source: Splunk CISO survey, 2026 26 CHANNELVISION | SPRING 2026 “ ... a whopping 96 percent of CISOs said they are now responsible for AI governance and risk management ... “
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