How to Develop Key Performance and Risk Indicators for Your Security Program?

Developing qualitative & quantitative risk models help organisations understand overall risk and the possible impact.

According to Forrester, 51% of organisations have faced significant risk in the past year. Enterprise risk management scoring is a crucial metric in today's business landscape. Developing Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) can enhance the effectiveness of risk assessment and management. Key Performance indicators monitor the uptime and performance of the various systems. Security programs must embed other measurements.

Understanding an organisation's risk appetite is more about setting boundaries between what is the likely event that causes the highest risk and what is the financial impact. KRIs and KPIs are essential to determining the risk posture and identifying process inefficiencies.

Organisations should engage third-party security firms, managed security services providers (MSSP), and risk management consultants to help develop the security and risk plan, including:

Develop an Incident Response program, including enabling internal controls.

Determine the correct security architecture that aligns with operational risk management mandates.
Organisations need to develop a cost model incorporating qualitative and quantitative risk profiles.
Develop relevance of KRI's and KPIs measuring service level agreements.

MSSPs like LinearStack offer several consulting engagements, from assessing the security infrastructure's current posture and assisting with architecture design, to protecting users and corporate data or 24x7 monitoring. LinearStack’s assessment outcomes help organisations develop their action plans, key indicators, and a foundation for an effective risk metrics program.

Are you interested in learning more? Read on!

What is True Risk to the Organisation?

Risk is the fear of something out of our control or becoming a more significant problem, unable to resolve with our resources and assets. Organisations develop risk management teams to determine qualitative and quantitative risk models to better understand the relationship between risk and the impossible impact on business performance.

We can break risk out into several concerns:

Physical risk to the organisation includes weather, social unrest, and fire/food.
Cybersecurity Risk - 51% or more of organisations face a daily cybersecurity attack. These attacks could be persistent denial-of-service, email phishing, or ransomware attacks. The risk of cyber-attacks has developed rapidly because of artificial intelligence.

Insider threat - A byproduct of cybersecurity attacks, insider threat is a critical risk problem. What conditions within the organisation breed someone to want to damage their place of employment or their education institution? What are the early indicators of insider threat? The risk of this attack method is very challenging to measure.

Defining KPI and KRI Relevance

The KPIs and KRIs often become more of a guess based on industry surveys or reported incidents.  Key risks and critical results (KPIs) provide metrics that enable businesses to plan effectively. But KRI and KPI have different measurement properties.

How to Develop Measurable KRIs?

Key risk indicators (KRIs) can be a valuable measure of business risk, but their effectiveness relies on the decision to use them. KRI trackers provide organisations with an active and thorough risk management approach. These essential factors monitor the organisation between assessments, monitoring for possible events that will lead to a negative outcome. Organisations establish KRIs to help with monitoring areas of weakness.

What are Key Performance Indicators in Security?

Cybersecurity programs use key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess their impact on business decision-making. According to PwC, only 22 percent of respondents believe CEOs' risk exposures are adequately extensive for decision-making.

Part of the challenge in understanding KPIs is where they fit within the organisations. Many of these measurements may be specific to a business unit or a cross-section of several. 

Financial conditions KPIs include recessions and regulatory changes.

Human capital management KPIs include high employee turnover and low employee satisfaction.
Develop IT system-wide KPIs: Onetime or continuous system failure, data exfiltration, ransomware, and insider threat.

How to Establish Risk Priorities for the Organisation?

To build an effective KRI, you must define business objectives and strategies. If you don't align strategic planning to risk management, the allocated budgets and human capital resources may decrease and be moved to other business operations, resulting in sharp increases in cybersecurity incidents.

After identifying key objectives, it is crucial to assess the risks faced by the company. Hackers pose a significant threat to eCommerce websites. Balancing the risk is essential to enhance customer satisfaction online. The Risk management team can then quantify and evaluate the risks to determine the steps for risk mitigation. Prioritizing risks in alignment with business goals can be an effective way to gain internal support.

CEOs compel their senior management teams to develop new markets and products and grow their customer base. These business decisions come with their own set of risks. An organisation needs to weigh out the KRIs and KPIs when considering a new business, including digital transformation, migration to the cloud, or a complete revamp of the customer experience. 

Organizations recognize the risk of moving forward with a new strategy or a choice not to pursue. Another component of risk management is loss and gain if the organisation chooses not to go forward and the impact of that decision.

Competitive risk also is an essential measurement organisations should compile as part of their strategic objectives and operational processes. What is the risk to the organisation for competing in a specific marketplace? Does the company have enough resources, including products and services, to win new customers and take market share away from the competition? Does the business environment have enough addressable market for two competitors in the same space?

These strategic decisions need to align with the organisation's risk landscape and approach to risk management.

Ultimately, risk prioritization directly aligns with business strategy decisions.

MSSP Role In Development Automation Capabilities

Organisations wanting to leverage risk prioritization with KRIs and KPIs must scale up the business process and cybersecurity automation. Many small-to-medium businesses recognize the importance of a fully executable risk management strategy. 

Cybersecurity teams will use automation to perform network assessment, application vulnerability, and email attack simulations. These automated assessments become a daily part of the over cybersecurity plan. The data collected from these assessments help determine the overall effectiveness of current KRIs and KPIs. Dashboards are created by security operations, risk management, and finance teams to review these measurements to determine and adjust the risk prioritization and potential cost implications resulting from an actual event. 

Only through automation, organisation governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) strategies can one deliver on their expectations. MSSPs bring their expertise to help create a GRC strategy along with automation assessments. Most small business cybersecurity teams need more internal resources to develop these assets.

LinearStack’s cybersecurity architecture engagements, assessment, and expertise in automation make this New Zealand firm essential for organisations developing a risk strategy. Organisations needing help keep cybersecurity and risk management talent should partner with LinearStack.

About LinearStack

LinearStack is a leading Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) and security systems integrator based in New Zealand. Since our establishment in 2013, we have built a reputation for providing world-class 24x7 security services to businesses of all sizes. We are proud to partner with some of the top technology companies in the industry, such as Palo Alto Networks, Cisco Systems, Imperva, and LogRhythm. Our excellent operational capabilities, as well as our fulfillment of business requirements and completion of rigorous technical, sales enablement, and specialization examinations, have earned us a distinguished reputation in the industry.

At LinearStack, we take pride in providing top-notch security solutions tailored to our client's needs. We aim to help businesses reduce cyber-attack risks, strengthen security posture, and maintain regulatory compliance. Our clients rely on us for our exceptional security solutions, outstanding customer service, and industry expertise.

Culture

We’re 100% privately held, grown with a family mindset. When working with clients, we’re well-integrated within their teams and act as an extension of their operations. Augmenting existing teams is a transition we manage smoothly, empowering our customers to prioritise cybersecurity strategy while we protect their business from cyber threats 24x7.

Maintaining thriving IT systems and assuring data protection are fundamental needs that all businesses deserve.