What are information security KPI examples? You can have more awareness of this topic. If you want to understand more information, read this study.
What is the Information Security KPI?
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. A KPI is a metric that measures how well a company has performed and compares it to its goals. Also, KPIs can be broken down into three categories: Financial, Operational, and Customer.
The following is a list of examples of information security KPIs: Security incident rates; malware detection rates; mean time to repair (MTTR); Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF); Also, Mean Time to Successful Penetration (MTTS); and Mean Time to Detection (MTTD).
How to Calculate it?
Information security KPI examples vary from company to company. They can be calculated using software, manual methods, or a combination of both.
For instance, a manual method of calculating security incident rates involves going through a database and adding up the number of incidents reported each month. A software method of calculating security incident rates involves reviewing logs for some time and adding up the total number of incidents that occurred within that period.
What are Information Security KPI Examples?
Security Incident Rates
Security incident rate is the number of security incidents per one thousand users. It is usually as a percentage. Security incident rates can be done by dividing the total number of security incidents by the total number of users in the company.
For example, if there are 10,000 users in a company and they experience 120 security incidents in a single month, then the security incident rate is 120/10,000=1.2%.
Malware Detection Rates
Malware detection rate is the number of malware infections per one thousand users. It is by dividing the total number of malware infections by the total number of users in a company. The malware detection rate can be as a percentage or a ratio.
For example, if there are 100,000 users in a company and they experience 1,000 malware infections in a single month, then the malware detection rate is 1,000/100,000=1%.
Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) is the average time it takes to repair a security incident. For example, if it takes the IT department of a company 4 hours to resolve 90% of the security incidents reported, then MTTR is 4/90=4.5 hours.
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is the average time between two similar security incidents. For example, if an IT department has 2 similar security incidents in 10 days and then there are no incidents in the 20 following days, then MTBF is 20/10=2 days.
MTTS
Mean Time To Successful Penetration (MTTS) is the average time it takes to get through the security defenses of a company. For example, if it takes an attacker 4 hours to get through 60% of the security defenses of a company and then there are no successful attacks for the next 40 hours, then MTTS is 4/60=0.67 hours.
MTTD
Mean Time To Detection (MTTD) is the average time it takes to detect a security incident. For example, if it takes the IT department of a company 3 hours to detect 95% of the security incidents reported, then MTTD is 3/95=3.3 hours.
Conclusion
Information security KPI examples are essential for measuring and evaluating the performance of an information security department.
By understanding what information security KPIs are, how to calculate them, and how to improve them, you will have a better idea of how well your IT department is performing.
