Source: Rivial Security Blog Author: Randy Lindberg URL: https://www.rivialsecurity.com/blog/cybersecurity-metrics-for-the-board
ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:
Effective cybersecurity board reporting requires focusing on meaningful, contextual metrics rather than superficial or overly technical data points.
MAIN POINTS:
- Avoid reporting the number of spam emails blocked; focus on employee training outcomes instead.
- Replace qualitative risk measures with quantitative approaches like Monte Carlo Analysis for clearer risk communication.
- Reporting additional security tools is less impactful than highlighting addressed cybersecurity gaps or mitigated risks.
- Use adjusted vulnerability ratings instead of raw CVSS scores to better reflect real organizational risks.
- Reporting perimeter attacks blocked offers limited value; focus on blocked attacks that breached the firewall.
- Report the ratio of critical and high vulnerabilities patched, with trends, for actionable insights.
- Overly technical metrics can confuse board members, reducing the effectiveness of cybersecurity communication.
- Contextual reporting aligns cybersecurity metrics with organizational priorities, making them more relevant to board members.
- Boards of financial institutions need actionable, clear cybersecurity data to fulfill regulatory oversight responsibilities.
- A well-structured reporting template enhances the clarity and relevance of board-level cybersecurity discussions.
TAKEAWAYS:
- Focus cybersecurity reporting on employee training effectiveness and reduced human errors in phishing scenarios.
- Quantitative risk analysis offers better clarity than qualitative ordinal scales for board-level presentations.
- Highlight specific risk mitigation efforts over the mere addition of security tools or technologies.
- Adjust and contextualize vulnerability ratings to reflect organizational relevance and exploitation likelihood.
- Provide actionable insights by reporting trends and ratios in patching critical vulnerabilities.