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7 Cyber Security Metrics Every Business Should Track

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5 November 2024

The ever-evolving nature of cyber threats means tracking cyber security metrics is essential for evaluating your company’s cyber security posture and maintaining cyber defences. 

Tracking these metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) is an effective way of measuring your cyber defences’ effectiveness and making informed decisions regarding cyber security. KPIs offer valuable insights into threat patterns, incident response efficiency, and system vulnerabilities. 

There are many important security metrics in the UK to consider regarding protecting important data, preventing data breaches, and detecting cyber attacks. 

This article examines some of the main cyber security metrics you need to track to protect your business from cyber threats. Understanding these metrics will help you identify gaps in vulnerability management, your business’ exposure to cyber risks, and how to keep your systems secure. 

1) Level of Preparedness

One of the key cyber security metrics you need to assess is your business’ level of preparedness against cyber attacks. This metric evaluates your organisation’s readiness for handling and mitigating cybersecurity threats and can be measured in many ways.

Begin by tracking the percentage of completely patched and up-to-date devices and software. Regular updates are essential to maintaining a strong defence against emerging threats. 

Next, determine how consistently your devices and software are updated. Continuous update compliance demonstrates that you’re not just reacting to threats but proactively working to prevent them. 

Another way to measure the level of preparedness is to count the number of high-risk vulnerabilities within your system. This will help you prioritise vulnerabilities more effectively and efficiently allocate resources to mitigate the most significant risks. 

2) Intrusion Attempts

Tracking the number of intrusion attempts helps you understand the intensity and frequency of cyber threats faced by your organisation. Regularly tracking these attempts will help you evaluate the resilience of your security measures. 

Document the exact number of times attackers have attempted to breach your networks. This will give you insight into the level of interest or targeting by cyber criminals. 

Next, assess the frequency of these attempts. Are they sporadic, or do they follow a distinct pattern? Understanding the pattern of attacks will help you predict and prepare for future attacks. 

It’s also important to identify common sources or methods among these intrusion attempts to reinforce your cyber security defences against the highly prevalent attacks.

3) Number of Security Incidents

To effectively manage IT security, you’ll need to monitor whether changes in tools or processes lead to notable improvements. 

A significant portion of the IT budget is often allocated towards taking standard cyber security measures. For this reason, your metrics also need to demonstrate that money is being used effectively. 

Collecting information on the number and rate of security incidents over a specific period helps ensure your defences are effectively protecting your digital assets.

4) Unidentified Devices on the Internal Network

Unidentified devices on your business’ internal network pose a significant risk to your cyber security. These devices often have insufficient security measures and can easily become entry points for cyber attacks. 

If you notice unidentified devices on your internal network, make a note of how many are present. This action will help you understand the scale of potential risk. 

Alongside this, maintain a comprehensive log of all devices connected to the network. A detailed inventory will help you track and manage network access more efficiently and give you better control over the security of your network. 

Lastly, examine if there are protocols in place to detect new devices and carry out security assessments. Taking proactive cyber security metrics and measures will help you mitigate risks associated with devices on your network. 

5) Incident Response Times

Speed is a critical factor in identifying and addressing cyber threats. Tracking incident response times helps security managers understand how effectively their teams respond to alerts and work on threats. 

Alongside monitoring responses to threats, mean time to respond (MTTR) is a common cyber security metric that’s calculated as an average. Mean time to detect (MTTD) is another related average for identifying attacks and other threats. 

With this information on incident response times, you can focus on lowering response times if they aren’t fast enough. 

6) Vulnerability Patch Response Times

Patching systems and applications as soon as bug fixes become available is one of the best ways to protect your business software. Tracking how quickly your cyber security team installs software patches helps show the effectiveness of critical risk avoidance. 

7) Access Management

When it comes to cyber security metrics, effective access management means that only certain people have access to sensitive information. Tracking unauthorised access attempts and privilege misuse will help you maintain the effectiveness of your access control and update your policies to maintain tight control over your data. 

Contact Redpalm to Tackle Cyber Criminals and Improve IT Security 

When it comes to cyber security metrics, there’s no right way to choose the right cyber security KPIs to measure. Your choice of metrics ultimately depends on your industry, security needs, guidelines, and your customer’s appetite for risk. 

Redpalm is a managed service provider (MSP) that offers cyber security solutions to protect your business against all types of digital threats. 

As a trusted security partner, we empower your business with the tools to strengthen your network and safeguard your systems. Our Microsoft-certified experts will help you effectively detect and mitigate security risks. 

We also offer various other services such as proactive monitoring, technology procurement, incident response, cloud services, IT audits and health checks, and more. 

To learn more about our services, click here or contact us to schedule an appointment today.

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