Using Metrics For Measuring Cyber Resilience

Cyber resilience emphasizes recovery, while cybersecurity focuses on defending against attacks. Both are integral parts of the same protective strategy, according to Pam Baker in Information Week. Given that a cyberattack will inevitably succeed at some point, cyber resilience helps maintain productivity by minimizing the impact of a breach.

The C-suite must address several critical questions: Which key assets and processes need protection? What level of risk is acceptable? And how much impact can the company endure? To determine if your tools and tactics are sufficient to meet these goals, cyber resilience metrics are essential. Integrating cyber resilience into your overall business continuity strategy is crucial.

Time required to detect an attack is the key indicator of whether an organization is prepared to respond in a timely way. The less time required, the more chance for reducing the impact of a cyberattack.

Another important metric is the average time from when an alert is triggered to when defensive action is taken. If an attack is discovered only when service is disrupted, cybersecurity is inadequate.

The time it takes your incident response team to detect and fully resolve an incident, including detecting, diagnosing, and repairing the issue to ensure that the failure won’t be repeated are all important metrics. The article lists several more.

When the cyber resilience objectives are clarified, key performance indicators can be set to measure them. These will assess your company’s security controls and whether they are protecting your critical assets.