How frequently are security patches and updates released by software vendors, and how quickly are they implemented? However, it had divided the data up into specific groupings; open vulnerability on external-facing servers. Reporting on Information Security Metrics That Matter to - IANS Business Intelligence (BI) tools, such as Microsofts Power BI, or a SaaS BI offering we demo in the course call Domo, there are both connectors to leverage the scanner APIs, connections to webpages to gather the data, or ingesting the CSV files as well. How many security incidents have been detected and resolved in the past month/quarter/year? Using a Risk-Based Approach to Prioritize Vulnerability Remediation - ISACA There are several patches released by software teams to fix bugs and other known vulnerabilities that may or may not be known to other public users. Advanced security tools offer important insights and. 4 security metrics that matter | CSO Online Time to Detect This vulnerability management KPI measures the average time gap between the creation and detection of vulnerabilities across the organization. How is vendor security performance evaluated and reported to senior management or the board, and what metrics are used to measure vendor security performance? If this takes longer, the risks intensify, and attackers find an open ground to attack. How many risks have been identified in your third-party vendor's systems, and what is the plan to remediate these risks? How does your organization compare to industry benchmarks and best practices in terms of security rating? Top 10 Cybersecurity Metrics and KPIs The right cybersecurity metrics and key performance indicators can help your enterprise respond to risks more efficiently and cost-effectively. How are patches validated to ensure they do not cause any conflicts or disruptions in the systems they are being applied to? Metrics that matter page is not working I am unable to login the metrics that matter page. How are high-risk vulnerabilities prioritized for patching, and what is the process for testing and validating patches before implementation? The first question that came in asked: A there any public benchmarks/databases available that show asset coverage across various industry groups? How is incident response coordination managed between your organization and your vendors? When it comes to protecting sensitive data, preventing data breaches, and detecting cyber attacks, a checklist should be followed to track your efforts. How are vendor response times and incident response performance evaluated and monitored? First, you have Key Risk Indicators (KRIs)these are the operational metrics you are going to use to run your security program. To be successful in communicating about security, collaborating with other teams, and securing and maintaining a healthy budget, its necessary that you translate security objectives into business objectives. From a business perspective, tracking the rate of issue recurrence is a staffing and financial matter: avoiding repeated issues and increasing the efficiency of security and IT teams saves money and streamlines . How is access control regularly audited and reviewed, and how often are access policies and procedures updated? 6 security metrics that matter - and 4 that don't - SecureAuth Unlock 14 key metrics + bonus Vendor Risk Management KPIs to strengthen your cyber defense strategy. How is the principle of least privilege applied to limit user access and reduce the risk of privilege escalation attacks? Learn how UpGuard simplifies attack surface management >. Organizations may think that their VM programs are strong. Rapid7 Observed Exploitation of Critical MOVEit Transfer Vulnerability, Widespread Exploitation of Zyxel Network Devices, Using Rapid7 Insight Agent and InsightVM Scan Assistant in Tandem. How many high-risk vulnerabilities have been identified? Below, we've listed some security metrics (in no particular order) which can be used to measure the performance of your Vulnerability Management (VM) program. What is the process for managing access requests and approvals, and how are these requests documented and tracked? Benchmarking your organization's security performance and cybersecurity strategy against industry peers can provide valuable insights into areas for improvement. Monitor your business for data breaches and protect your customers' trust. How is your organization prioritizing patching for third-party vendors based on risk level? And I can guarantee when 4 weeks will come up. In the Executive Vulnerability Metrics dashboard, there are 4 matrices that correlate vulnerabilities from the date the vulnerability is published to the time the vulnerability is identified by SecurityCenter - the time a patch is available, and the time the risk is mitigated. Netflix Cracks Down on Password Sharing, AI Legal Research Gone Wrong, Fake Identities and Surveillance Firms, BSidesSF 2023 - Arthur Loris - FAIR STRIDE - Building Business Relevant Threat Models, Strengthening The Canadian Financial Sectors Cybersecurity, Dancho Danchev's OSINT and Threat Intelligence Training Video Demonstration in Bulgarian - Part Two, https://www.indusface.com/blog/measuring-the-performance-of-vulnerability-management-which-metrics-matter-which-dont/. The, risk management platform aggregates data from a wide range of sources, automatically enriching your cyber risk data with relevant context. How is the organization's incident response plan updated and tested to ensure it remains effective and relevant? Cyber threats are constantly evolving and the processes and technology needed to prevent them are constantly changing. Security metric No. How many successful cyber attacks have occurred in the past month/quarter/year? Today's ability to gather and mine data to manage companies and measure results is . How are incident response procedures for third-party vendors integrated into your overall incident response plan, and how are they updated and communicated to relevant personnel? What communication channels are used to share the security rating with stakeholders, and how is this information used to build trust with customers and partners? How has your organization's security performance compared to your peers over time, and what trends or patterns have emerged? Time to remediation provides key data, including: It also helps to improve your security posture rating. Ideally, the number of instances should be as close to zero as possible to maintain customer confidence. Metric No. Successful vulnerability management helps your business meet compliance requirements, achieve security framework goals, and defend against breacheswhile minimizing the attack surface. What is the policy for employees bringing their own devices (BYOD) to work, and how are these devices managed and secured? The BI tools then make it easier for us to manipulate the data, as they give us some visual means to do that. , it can be hard to know what to focus on. What is the process for reporting security incidents to regulatory authorities, customers, and other stakeholders? Discover how businesses like yours use UpGuard to help improve their security posture. 2: Duration of attack. Nvd - Cve-2023-34362 Now you can have conversations like In Q3 2019 we achieved our SLA for critical patched on payroll systems 70% of the time. Subscribe and get the best vulnerability management content delivered right to your inbox. What is the process for communicating patching requirements and deadlines to third-party vendors? For instance, a vulnerability was introduced into the application during an update that took place in the previous month and the organization has managed to detect the vulnerability only after an attack that had happened last week. Murray suggests CISOs develop a . But reporting on the right metrics that will not only give you a better handle on your vulnerability risk management program, but also relate back to the greater business goals can make all the difference. It felt like you know the inside of my organization! Outside of the metrics outlined above, the CIS Controls also provides a cost-effective, prioritized list of security controls for improving cybersecurity performance. In this post, we outline 14 actionable cybersecurity metrics to help you take ownership of your risk identification and remediation efforts. If attackers succeed in exploiting these vulnerabilities, this can lead to system disruptions and serious damage to the targeted organization. Feel free to follow me on Twitter at @jonathanristo. Organizations may think that their VM programs are strong. 1: Number of Vulnerabilities Left Unpatched. Another KRI example for a security team could be reducing the time-to-remediate vulnerabilities. Wait what? What is the average MTTD for your organization? As a security team, we have a goal to remove obsolete operating systems. Because many organizations lack a vulnerability process, the metrics they gather don't make sense or are difficult to explain. By making it easier to prioritize critical risks, UpGuard keeps your security posture optimized to resilient levels at all times. Vulcan Cyber is changing the way organizations own their risk, and we're looking for people to join us on this journey. NVD - Vulnerability Metrics How is your organization monitoring fourth-party vendor risk (the vendors used by your vendors)? How is threat intelligence gathered and used to proactively detect and prevent security incidents? What are the consequences for non-compliance with access policies, and how is compliance with access policies monitored? We just need to export the data. Thus scan coverage helps to clarify the scope of risks. What is the process for restoring systems and data following a security incident, and how is the effectiveness of this process validated? What is the average MTTR for your vendor's incident response? Download the data breach prevention guide >. Get a demoand start owning your risk. How are access controls implemented for devices on your network, and what is the process for granting and revoking access permissions? How is user behavior monitored to identify potential security incidents or insider threats? This vulnerability management KPI measures the average time gap between the creation and detection of vulnerabilities across the organization. How are incident response teams trained and prepared for different types of security incidents, and how is their performance assessed during incident response exercises? The third category of metrics are those outside your security teams control, such as reporting on an aggregate risk score. During the webcast, some questions and comments came in and I was not able to get to all of them within the scheduled time. Establishing clear communication channels and coordination processes for reporting and addressing security incidents and vulnerabilities, Monitoring vendor response times and performance, and holding them accountable for meeting established service level agreements (SLAs), Integrating vendor incident response procedures into your overall incident response plan and ensuring that relevant personnel are trained on these processes. How to detect & prevent interception fraud. From there, we worked with our IT team to add these metrics to the vulnerability ticket template, which included information . UpGuard offers a library of cybersecurity report designs to help you reflect your cybersecurity efforts in a style that meets the unique communication requirements of your stakeholders. Helping you better understand what is working and what is worsening, improving decision-making about future projects. What is the average downtime experienced during a security incident, and what is the impact on the organization's operations? Simplify, Secure, Strengthen: Implementing Zero-Trust Across Your Endpoints, ActiveState Workshop: Building Secure and Reproducible Open Source Runtimes, Uncovering the Hidden Cybersecurity Threat in Your Organization, Enrich Security Investigations With ServiceNow Asset Data in Snowflake, Securing Containers & Kubernetes With AWS And Calico, Strange Bedfellows: Software, Security and the Law, Sneak Peek: Cloud Security Prioritized With Sonrai, Unleash the Potential of Your Log and Event Data, Including AIs Growing Impact, External Attack Surface Management: How Focusing on Basics Improves Security, Legacy AppSec Tools Getting Lost in the Cloud, Russia Says NSA Hacked iOS With Apples Help we Triangulate Kasperskys Research, Attack Surface Management Vs. Board-level metrics should achieve three goals: Simplify decision-making: Easy-to-understand information is vital. For me, however, when that decision is taken, I dont consider them excluded, but an accepted risk. 2. What training and education programs are in place for security analysts and incident responders, and how is their performance monitored and evaluated? Six Strategies for Reducing Vulnerability Risk | Tripwire "The Mantra" -behind the Vulnerability Management Metrics - LinkedIn For best results, it's highly recommended to support your presentation with a cybersecurity executive report. Let's assume your organization has committed to a 15-day window to patch critical vulnerabilities, a 30-day window to patch highs and a 60-day window to patch mediums/lows. If a resolved vulnerability re-opens frequently, it indicates that your remediation process is deeply flawed. What measures are in place to prevent false positives and false negatives in intrusion detection systems? But considering them may provide a false sense of security to the business stakeholders. What metrics are used to track patching effectiveness and compliance, and how are these metrics used to drive improvements in the patching process? Depending on the database engine being used (MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, or Azure SQL), an attacker may be able to infer information about the structure and contents of the database, and execute SQL statements that alter or delete database elements. With so many available vulnerability management metrics and insightful data available through different tools and threat intelligence frameworks, it can be hard to know what to focus on. How effective are your containment measures in preventing further damage or data loss, as measured by the scope and severity of each incident? Tuning security controls and monitoring tools to improve detection and response times, reducing the likelihood of successful cyberattacks. Learn more about Jonathan here. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are an effective way to measure the success of any program (including cybersecurity) and aid in decision-making. The objective of these meetings is to demonstrate how cybersecurity is saving the organization money. What actions are taken to maintain or improve the security rating over time, and how are these actions tracked and evaluated? What is Deepfake Technology and How Are Threat Actors Using It? This prevents security vulnerabilities from going unnoticed for long time spans. helps you prioritize risk remediation so that you can invest time and resources accordingly. How often are user accounts reviewed and audited for compliance with access policies and procedures? The longer it takes vendors to respond to incidents, the higher the chance you will suffer from a third-party data breach. As Peter Drucker said, what gets measured, gets managed - and cybersecurity is no different. David Gruberger | May 10, 2023 Vulnerabilities can arise in software due to existing bugs, improperly secured firewall rules, or various other reasons. Could your team be wasting its time reporting vulnerability metrics that dont matter? Choosing to ignore this metric could result in massive damages. Average delay and downtime: This metric tracks the average time systems are non-operational, whether for repair, corrective and preventive maintenance, or system failures. Vulnerability Management KPIs that Matter 1. Pair this with extraterritorial data protection laws like GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD and security management becomes a key focus for every organization. Other tools that can help us visualize and create metrics. However, you probably have become even more effective than the last time you reported metrics to the board. Both are displaying the open vulnerabilities but have taken it a step further and layered in more context to create some meaningful groupings. Some questions have been slightly edited for clarity and expanding some acronyms. CVSS is not a measure of risk. The latest McKinsey Global Survey on environmental, social, and governance (ESG . What is the process for investigating and responding to detected intrusion attempts, and how are those findings communicated? What is your organization's current security rating, and how is it calculated? 5 Key Metrics for Vulnerability Management - Defensible View a Gartner report about why security and risk management leaders should report metrics aligned with risk and business objectives (outcome-driven metrics) to improve their vulnerability management program. This security flaw cause a buffer overrun vulnerability in pkcs15 cardos_have_verifyrc_package. They are: Scanner Coverage Scan Frequency Number of Critical Vulnerabilities Number of Closed Vulnerabilities Exclusions What is your mean response time following immediate awareness of a cyber attack? If you can't measure your security efforts, you won't know how you're tracking. Learn why cybersecurity is important. The vulnerability reopen rate metric tells about the rate at which a vulnerability reopens due to flaws in the, Get the exact priorities, remedies, insights, and automation recipes you need to manage cyber risk. To improve MTTD, consider the following: First-party security ratings are an essential metric for evaluating your organization's cybersecurity posture. Second, you have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)these are the metrics that the business uses to measure its effectiveness overall, with security and IT being one small (yet critical) piece of that overall picture; hopefully, you can get these from your organizations leadership. Next question: Are tools like Nmap better categorized as controls to validate asset inventory? Security Metrics are essential for quantitative measurement of any security program. A cyber threat (orcybersecuritythreat) is the possibility of a successfulcyber attackthat aims to gain unauthorized access, damage, disrupt, or more. In this article, well explore key vulnerability management metrics that help track the progress of vulnerability management programs and make the tough job of asset protection less complex. Exclusions time-bound or "specific scenario bound"? This is a complete guide to security ratings and common usecases. This scanner can help you discover unmaintained assets expanding your attack surface and increasing your risk of suffering a data breach. What criteria are used to evaluate vendor security, and how are those criteria weighted? Read on as we delve into the VM metrics that matter most. Which security metrics matter the most? Unfortunately, no there are not able publicly available benchmarks, like the industry sector breakdowns that you see in the Verizon Data Breach Report, that highlight how various industry groups are doing at asset coverage. How is your organization using benchmarking data to identify areas for improvement in your security program? How is access granted to new employees, and what is the process for removing access when an employee leaves the company? How are patches and updates distributed and installed across different devices and systems, and how is this process managed and monitored? And finally, this is a comment more than a question that was submitted. Curtis Simpson, CISO of the tech firm Armis and former CISO of Sysco Foods, believes metrics are more important than ever, considering the increasingly high stakes of getting security right and the growing board oversight in this space. 14 Cybersecurity KPIs to Track Below are examples of clear KPIs and metrics you can track and present to your stakeholders. Goals and SLAs can also ensure that things like compliance and various industry-specific standards are monitored and met. Learn where CISOs and senior management stay up to date. How is your organization managing data classification and data retention policies, and how are those policies enforced? How UpGuard helps tech companies scale securely. Great presentation. Within Rapid7s vulnerability risk management solution, InsightVM, security teams can gain clarity into the risk across the ecosystem, extend their influence across the organization, and see shared progress with the security team and the colleagues in operations and development. But your actual inventory should not be based on what you see (machines can be off / protected). How long does it take to contain identified attack vectors across all endpoints and systems from the time of initial detection? "What metrics should I use as part of my vulnerability management program?" This is a question you are not alone in asking. How are third-party devices and services securely integrated into your network, and what is the process for managing their access and permissions? To demonstrate how to improve performance across all 14 primary cybersecurity metrics, each checklist item is presented in question form. The only free tool for risk aggregation and prioritization is available for every security team out there. What assets, applications, systems, third-party services, etc. With a trusted security partner like Indusface, you can design a robust VM program and effectively track the right KPIs and metrics for vulnerability management. However, these exceptions need to be tracked for auditing purposes and for taking future actions based on the changing risk posture. I do not have a good example dashboard to direct you to currently. To effectively compare your security posture with that of your peers, consider the following: An executive summary report is one of the best methods of communicating your security performance with stakeholders. What is the process for validating vendors have implemented security patches? Immediately apply the skills and techniques learned in SANS courses, ranges, and summits, Build a world-class cyber team with our workforce development programs, Increase your staffs cyber awareness, help them change their behaviors, and reduce your organizational risk, Enhance your skills with access to thousands of free resources, 150+ instructor-developed tools, and the latest cybersecurity news and analysis. I would put the time limit there. . 1 For more, see Krysta Biniek, Vivian Hunt, Robin Nuttall, Lucy Prez, and Hamid Samandari, "Does ESG really matterand why?," McKinsey Quarterly, August 10, 2022. The patching rate metric details how many patches are applied to resolve unknown or undetected vulnerabilities in the software and how much time it took security teams to apply that particular patch. Comparing the results of a fix against an SLA metric helps determine how effective a vulnerability fix is. This vulnerability management KPI enables you to understand the risks faced by asset groups/ business units and thus, re-focus your priorities in the VM program. The best way to mitigate downtime risks and minimize costs is to . Everyone in a software development organization, from the head honchos to the last member of the security and dev teams, are investing more and more resources in their vulnerability management To maintain or improve your security rating, consider the following: The threat landscape for your organization extends beyond your borders and your security performance metrics must do the same. Regularly reviewing and updating your security controls and practices to stay aligned with industry best practices, Leveraging communication channels to share your security rating with stakeholders, building trust with customers and partners, Implementing a continuous improvement process to track and evaluate the effectiveness of your security measures. When it comes to asset risk management, its crucial to be able to answer such questions as: Asset risk data helps you prioritize risk remediation so that you can invest time and resources accordingly. Redefine your vulnerability management metrics with InsightVM. How long does it take for your team to become aware of security threats and incidents? personally identifiable information (PII), robust third-party risk management framework, you and your customer's appetite for risk. ESG impact and effective ESG operating models | McKinsey Learn how UpGuard simplifies Vendor Risk Management >. With so many available vulnerability management metrics and insightful data available through different tools and. A service-level agreement (SLA) serves as a baseline tracker for remediation, determining when a patch is needed. goals, and defend against breacheswhile minimizing the attack surface. Security teams often fall into the trap of reporting security metrics that dont actually matter to the business. When first starting your program, these 5 metrics are where you should start. The cardos_have_verifyrc_package function scans the ASN1 buffer for 2 tags, where remaining length is wrongly caculated due to . First, some of the metrics are being generated for us by the scanners we are using today, so they are the easiest ones. With security ratings quantified using an objective and reliable calculation mechanism, a drop in security ratings is a likely indication of a new security exposure that could result in a security incident if exploited by hackers. What is the process for investigating and resolving security alerts and incidents, and how are those findings communicated? Vulnerability Risk Management: Metrics that Matter Because of increased investment and team training, we achieved a 95% adherence to this SLA in Q4 2019. This shows your efficacy and clearly exhibits how you are protecting the business most important systems and data. This has been driven by new regulations like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation, PIPEDA, and CPS 234. If your business isn't concerned about cybersecurity, it's only a matter of time before you're an attack victim. Most organizations run vulnerability-detection reports on a weekly or monthly basis, with issue trackers reducing detection time to hours, minutes, and seconds. How well do your incident response team and processes work in coordinating containment efforts across different departments such as IT, legal, and public relations? to resolve vulnerabilities and mitigate attacks as quickly as possible. Today's CISOs tend to talk about metrics they have on hand, often generated by tools like vulnerability scanners, antivirus solutions, SIEM (security information and event management), and their security ticketing systems, including: It is also recommended to conduct regular pen-tests and security audits along with the use of automated scanning tools for better results. If it was easy to do, we wouldnt be here discussing it. The post Measuring the Performance of Vulnerability Management: Which Metrics Matter, Which Dont? Which assets are prone to security threats? The board and C-suite usually aren't technically versed, and they're too busy to wade through layers of data. It is becoming increasingly essential for companies to understand and address the effects that externalities can have on their social license. Click here download this list as an editable checklist. MTTD is a crucial metric for determining the efficiency of your organization's threat detection and response capabilities. All this is to say, measuring and reporting on the wrong metrics isnt beneficial to security nor the organization at large. They are: Scanner Coverage Scan Frequency Number of Open Vulnerabilities Number of Closed Vulnerabilities Exclusions First, because most executives, board members, and other teams dont understand this metric in context and, second, its not actionable to them. While your security team knows what this means, this number often has no meaningful translation for the rest of the company. Objective measure of your security posture, Integrate UpGuard with your existing tools. What metrics are used to track incident response and resolution times, and how are these metrics used to improve the incident response process? How often are security monitoring tools and sensors updated, and how is their updated performance monitored? CVSS alone simply doesnt offer enough context and can leave you with thousands of critical vulnerabilities to fix, which isnt helpful to your security team nor is it easily communicable to other business counterparts.