3 Ways to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Cybersecurity Program

No one thinks they’re at risk of being targeted until it’s too late. A security attack can wreak havoc on any individual or company, causing potential legal, financial and operational disturbance. With more emerging security threats on the horizon than ever before, the push for individuals and organizations to adopt a cybersecurity program has skyrocketed.

According to a recent survey, 69% of CEOs believe a strong cyber strategy is critical to building trust with key stakeholders, but many respondents still lack the preparation needed to handle a cyber event. The costs associated with investing in a cybersecurity program often deter organizations from adopting preventative measures. However, cybersecurity programs not only reduce the likelihood of a security breach, saving organizations millions in potential costs, but are a competitive advantage for customer and brand security.

One way to know if security controls are defending your organization is to conduct frequent tests. Several measures can be implemented to help an organization gauge the effectiveness of its existing security controls:

1. Security Audits: Security assessments and pen testing allows an organization to test and improve its security posture by enabling a third-party vendor to perform offensive security assessments that identify vulnerabilities and exploit pathways. These tests can help you determine the effectiveness of your security infrastructure and alert you to areas that need improvement. While this provides organizations with valuable insight on how to prepare for a potential attack, pen testing is limited by resources and time, meaning it will not identify every possible point of an attack. Internal testing and assessment programs are best supplemented by 3^rd party tests at least once every three years.
2. False Positive Reporting: Tracking the false positive reporting rate (FPRR) can provide an organization with the ratio of negative reported threats wrongly categorized as positive and the total number of reported negative threats. A high FPRR can determine the need for more accurate detection technology and fine tuning of analytics tools. Most contemporary SOC and ticketing tools have this capability built-in, and it may be a matter of simply adding an existing metric to a dashboard or report.
3. Incident Response Volume: Monitoring the total number of incident response cases against closed and pending cases can help organizations identify how well incidents are found and addressed. This allows organizations to accelerate and improve incident response operations.   

Carolina Advanced Digital offers a breadth of security solutions including products and services for security reviews, assessments, and pen testing, vCISO (virtual CISO services) plus SOC solutions around SIEM and UEBA. Contact us today to schedule a free call with a team member to discuss your needs.

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