In the fast-evolving world of cybersecurity, it’s easy to get lost in the noise of daily alerts, vendor pitches, and shifting threat landscapes. But once a quarter, a signal cuts through the static: the quarterly CISO Top 10 Reports from the CyberRisk Collaborative. Far more than a simple set of infographics, these reports deliver something rare—an unfiltered look into what matters most to real security leaders right now.
Q2 2025’s reports spotlight not just tactical priorities like AI, cloud, and Zero Trust, but also strategic imperatives like security metrics, business continuity, and leadership development. These are not the opinions of analysts or vendors. They are the distilled concerns, insights, and signals from hundreds of CISOs, each representing a unique enterprise and contributing through structured, 1:1 conversation. That makes the CISO Top 10 an essential resource for not just CISOs and their teams, but also for cybersecurity marketers, solution providers, and anyone hoping to shape the future of digital defense.
How the CISO Top 10 is Built—and Why That Matters
What makes this report so valuable is its rigorous, peer-sourced methodology. The CyberRisk Collaborative doesn’t just send out a mass survey or rely on anecdotal feedback. Instead, they interview hundreds of CISOs and senior security leaders. Each response is carefully analyzed, ranked by frequency, and synthesized into a clear, prioritized roadmap of what security leaders are actually focusing on. No single company dominates the results. This ensures integrity, diversity of thought, and actionable insight grounded in operational reality.
It’s important to note that there are two distinct yet interconnected lists: the Technology Top 10 and the Executive Management Top 10. Together, they present a full-spectrum view, from the SOC to the boardroom, of what’s driving today’s cybersecurity strategies.
Connecting Priorities to Action: Enter the Resource Toolkits
What truly makes these reports actionable is their direct link to the CyberRisk Collaborative’s Resource Toolkits, a curated collection of playbooks, templates, and practical guidance mapped to each of the CISO Top 10 priorities. These aren’t generic whitepapers or vendor-funded glossaries. They are CISO-developed tools designed to translate strategic priorities into real-world implementation.
For every ranked concern, whether it’s vulnerability management, AI operationalization, or board-level metric reporting, there’s a toolkit available to help security leaders make progress without starting from scratch. CISOs and their teams don’t have to guess what to do next; they can go straight to vetted resources created by peers, for peers. Accessing these resources is simple for members, and they are continuously updated to reflect emerging threats, technologies, and governance expectations. This makes the Top 10 and Toolkit combination a comprehensive leadership enablement system
Why These Reports Matter for CISOs and Security Teams
For CISOs, these reports offer a mirror and a map. They validate concerns, such as the enduring dominance of cloud security and the rapid operationalization of AI. They also spotlight emerging challenges, including the increasing complexity of attack surface management and the board’s growing appetite for metrics-driven security leadership. Every entry in the Top 10 is a conversation starter for leadership meetings, tabletop exercises, and program-level decision-making. And with the paired Toolkits, security teams are equipped to act quickly and confidently.
A Must-Read for Cybersecurity Marketers and Providers
Here’s where the real opportunity lies for marketers, service providers, and vendors aiming to support CISOs more effectively, this is your blueprint. Too often, vendors pitch products based on trends or features, without deeply understanding the current mental model of their buyers. The CISO Top 10 gives you that understanding. If you're not aligning your messaging and value propositions to these Top 10 issues, you’re talking past your audience. Even more importantly, this report can help drive your content strategy. Hosting a webinar? Creating sales enablement content? Anchor it in the language CISOs are using to describe their needs today, not last year.
Stay Ahead by Getting Inside the CISO Mindset
The quarterly CISO Top 10 Reports aren’t just a reflection of cybersecurity’s most pressing challenges, they’re a transformational roadmap to relevance in a high-stakes, rapidly evolving field. Whether you're guiding enterprise risk from the inside or supporting it from the outside, the question isn’t whether you can afford to pay attention. It’s whether you can afford not to. Explore the latest CISO Top 10 and start aligning your strategy with the peer driven insights that matter most.
Get in touch with us to get access to the full reports.
.webp)