Hello, it’s me, I’m a Prince from Nigeria, and I will offer you $1 billion to wire me–
Just kidding. We’re not scammers! We’re the experts at Fantastic IT and we’re here to help you protect your company from hackers, scammers, or literally anyone who wants to take advantage of you, your employees, or your company.
Trying to stamp out cybercrime is a near impossibility in today’s lightning-paced world where viruses, scams, and phishing tactics make huge leaps forward in the blink of an eye. However, there are still ways to safeguard your company from the potentially devastating effects of a security breach.
Here are 15 metrics you can keep track of to keep your company from getting breached.
The Best 15 Cybersecurity Metrics To Watch
Considering there are so many different methods and approaches to hacking into you and your company, it makes no sense to try to keep a constant eye on everything, all the time.
The reality is that cyber-attacks are constant and constantly becoming more sophisticated and hard to detect. Considering the rate at which hackers and scammers find new ways to attack your IT infrastructure, it’s a fool’s errand to try to keep on top of every single new method.
Instead, taking a look at a few isolated metrics will give you the most efficient, most effective way to deal with cyber threats. By looking at these KPIs, you can address the key areas of your IT that are lagging or need improvement.
Number of Attacks: Arguably the most straightforward metric, the number of attacks an organization faces provides a baseline understanding of its cybersecurity landscape. This helps you understand where to begin – by understanding how big and numerous the problems are.
Time to Detect (TTD): This measures how quickly a cyber threat is detected after a cyberattack is initiated. A shorter TTD equates to a more robust cybersecurity stance, so you’ll always be aiming for a lower TTD.
Prevention Rate: It quantifies the percentage of cyber-attacks that an organization successfully wards off. Higher numbers = stronger, tougher cybersecurity.
Detection Rate: Related to TTD, detection rate measures the percentage of cyber threats detected by an organization’s security systems. You want a higher number for this one, as a lower value means you’re not detecting as many threats as you should.
Response Time: This is the duration between the detection of a cyber attack and the initiation of a response.
Phishing Click-Through Rate: Phishing has become a big problem as of late – phishing attacks are up 31% according to the FBI. Phishing CTR measures the percentage of employees who click on links in phishing emails. Obviously, a lower number is better. The fewer people clicking phished links, the better!
Employee Training Hours: The number of hours spent on cybersecurity training reflects an organization’s commitment to securing its human firewall. The human element of IT is perhaps the most critical. Training your employees on cybersecurity is critical – 80% of organizations see a reduction in phishing attacks after robust training!
Turnaround Time for Security Patching: This measures how quickly an organization can deploy security patches, a critical factor in countering zero-day vulnerabilities. The lower your turnaround time, the less time baddies have to sneak into your system and wreak havoc on your business.
Data Breach Impact: The gross amount of data compromised in a data breach and the subsequent cost per piece of data provides a glimpse into how brutal a cyberattack can be. The fewer files compromised, the better. A good way to limit this exposure is by limiting account access to data unrelated to their area of work.
System Downtime: The duration of system unavailability following a cyber attack affects an organization’s operations and reputation. The quicker you can get your systems back up, the more money you can make and the less money you’re burning through.
Customer Churn Rate: A spike in this metric following a cyber breach signals a loss of customer trust. A single cyberattack can be a death knell to a customer base in a single stroke. The more customers churn, the more people whose trust you have lost.
Compliance Score: This measures an organization’s alignment with relevant cybersecurity regulations. If you’re in healthcare or another industry where data security is of the utmost importance, you should pour a TON of focus into this area of cybersecurity. A better score = safer data.
Backup Frequency: Regular backups mitigate the risk of data loss, and the frequency of these backups is a vital metric. This is something almost everyone has control over, so no excuses here. Frequent (daily, even) backups are absolutely essential to a resilient business.
Disaster Recovery Success Rate: This metric gauges the effectiveness of an organization’s disaster recovery plans. How quickly and how effectively could you follow the plan in the event of a disaster?
Okay…Now What Do I Do?
While reading these metrics, you’re probably thinking: “Great, yeah, these are great pieces of information – but how do I find these metrics?”
Most of them can only be identified by either facing the cataclysm of being hacked…or you could just run some tests to see how well-prepared your IT systems are to handle any sort of difficulty.
Work together with your internal IT team or your managed IT partner to develop, maintain and test IT plans, infrastructure, and training.
Put your plans to the test: have a white-hat hack your system and test its vulnerabilities. See how your training works out as employees have to react to the problems.
Perhaps most important is the human element, as that’s where the majority of hackers find their way into your organization. Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigation found that 82% of all hacks involve humans giving access to hackers – solidifying phishing attacks as easily the most common way for outsiders to gain access to your company’s valuable data.
Considering the massive risks of phishing attacks, it’s essential that you constantly train and retrain your employees as time goes on because hackers move at the speed of light.
If you can sort out the human elements of your IT infrastructure, you’ll go a long way toward protecting your company from being invaded by nefarious forces.
If you need more help locking down your business – contact our expert anti-hacker team today!