Most Companies Failing to Measure Cybersecurity Effectiveness and Performance

More than half of respondents to a survey scored an “F” or “D” grade when evaluating their efforts to measure their cybersecurity investments and performance against best practices.

The 2017 State of Cybersecurity Metrics Report said that lobal companies and governments spend more than $100 billion a year on cybersecurity defenses, yet a substantial number, 32 percent, of companies are making business decisions and purchasing cyber security technology blindly. Even more disturbing, more than 80 percent of respondents fail to include business users in making cyber security purchase decisions, nor have they established a steering committee to evaluate the business impact and risks associated with cybersecurity investments.

Additional key findings from the report include:

One in three companies invest in cybersecurity technologies without any way to measure their value or effectiveness.
Four out of five companies don’t know where their sensitive data is located, or how to secure it.
Four out of five fail to communicate effectively with business stakeholders and include them in cybersecurity investment decisions.
Two out of three companies don’t fully measure whether their disaster recovery will work as planned.
Four out of five never measure the success of security training investments.
While 80 percent of breaches involve stolen or weak credentials, 60 percent of companies still do not adequately protect privileged accounts---their keys to the kingdom.