By using these key cybersecurity kpis or metrics corporate boards ensure alignment of security investments with strategic objectives and threats.
Cybersecurity professionals deal with metrics and measurement and often write and make recommendations for effective KPIs to present for Board of Directors submission.
This can be difficult because another topic is "We need to talk like a business".
Developing cybersecurity metrics in alignment with business is quite difficult. We're going to deal with this problem and offer a workable solution, then.
The board level is the highest strategic level in the organization, therefore first things first. If you offer analytics on patch status and phishing test results, you are essentially confessing that your cybersecurity approach is dependent on a few disorganized efforts and a prayer.
Avoid using technical terminology at all costs.
The "red-yellow-green" types of signs are frequently despised by cybersecurity professionals, but keep in mind that the Board does not need technical explanations.
If they could use the "sales per square foot" metric of a retail store which sells smartphone and candy, or the "bed utilization" metric for a hospital that performs brain surgeries, they can understand “bigger picture” scales from three by three to five-by-five levels.
"Red-Yellow-Green" is a possibility as long as the levels are specified and are explained in depth.
Reason is board members are held accountable for negligence, and unquestionably need more knowledge.
Top Cybersecurity KPIS/Concerns/Indicators for Corporate Boards
We are now going to get back to our main objective, which is to try to give business-minded board members information on cybersecurity that is strategic in nature.
Establishing a baseline is useful for board members who interested in learning cybersecurity.
These top five questions they must ask:
1. Do we really secure?
Since the answer to 100% protection is no and never will be, this topic frustrates many cybersecurity experts.
"What is the risk we face? The opposite? Are we able to proceed?
2. Do we really compliant?
The answers to these questions are frequently readily available in audit reports, but they will not offer genuine comfort because the "point in time" picture is subject to alter at any time.
Assessing cybersecurity program through the lens of a regulatory framework is always good choice.
3. Do we had any serious incident?
All significant incidents will be known to the board members, thus these questions will frequently be thoroughly answered along with an estimate of costs and liabilities.
I indicated five questions, but above three are the most frequent.
The final two are suggested as essential components of effective board management:
4. How really, we are effective in our security program? Quality (high).
5. How really, we are efficient in our security program? Quantity (detail).
Cyber Security Indicators for Corporate Governance Boards
As we develop our program, our objective is to convert complex technical details into a strategic framework that can be comprehended at a business level.
We should also recognize that board members are knowledgeable and capable of learning any necessary information to make informed decisions.
Their lives are being dominated by technology just like ours is, and since the entire world is undergoing a digital transformation, it is wonderful that they can set their SAAS metrics as they see fit.
We will use the following metrics:
IT resources (such as the quantity of users, devices, servers, and applications)
Utilization of activities (sessions, flows, messages, etc.)
Process controls (creation, modification, and deletion of user accounts) (Incident detection and response; vulnerability identification and patching; etc.)
Real-time (inline) controls (antivirus software, firewalls, email security, etc.)
Incidents
In order to gain strategic insight into the enterprise cybersecurity program, consider the following core set of board metrics:
Cyber risk: the proportion of improper usage activities to total usage activities
Cybersecurity effectiveness: the proportion by which real-time cybersecurity controls reduce cyber risk.
Cyber exposure: the typical number of activities per IT asset
Cyber resilience: For each usage activity, the average number of real-time controls is used.
Risk aversion ratio: the willingness to accept productivity loss (such as password errors or false positives) in comparison to the malicious behavior that is permitted or disallowed (true positives plus false negatives).
We also need to consider value and prices (Cost Benefit Analysis). After all, the language of business is financial information:
Loss-to-value ratio: The comparison between the cost of cybersecurity, which includes event losses, and the market worth of IT assets.
Cost per IT asset (presumably application): cybersecurity control cost per IT asset cost.
Risk reduced per unit cost: financial value of risk reduced compared to cybersecurity expense.
Look at the board meetings and earnings call transcripts for publicly traded companies, or even the vast array of financial ratios on your favorite investing websites, and you'll see that the metrics described above are at a much more appropriate strategic level than the jumble of patch levels and malware.
This path should be pursued if we want the company's executives to give due importance to cybersecurity.
Thanks for reading...