How to measure & improve your organization’s cyber resilience
Cyberattacks are on the rise. According to one study, 80% of organizations have suffered a major breach in recent years. Of those, half the attacks occurred in the past 12 months.
This is taking a serious financial toll on business. Data recovery costs - which don’t include ransom payments - average $2.73 million for every incident. For the first time, CIOs need to balance two competing cybersecurity priorities: prevention and recovery.
So as threats become more complex, cyber resilience is business-critical. The ability to recover quickly and decisively from a breach can determine whether an organization maintains its competitive edge - or loses substantial market share.
How does your organization compare? Here are some of the key indicators of cyber resilience, along with essential metrics to help technology leaders measure preparedness and ensure recovery strategies are robust.
Redefining resilience
Resilience demands more than effective cyber defenses. It requires structured recovery protocols, proactive planning, and clear benchmarks for success. The following five indicators are crucial in assessing an organization's ability to withstand and rebound from cyber incidents.
1. Advanced Threat Detection Systems
Early threat detection is vital to resilience. With tools like Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA), organizations can find anomalies in real time.
These technologies provide IT teams with the actionable insights they need to intercept an attack before it escalates, minimizing the chances of high-cost disruption.
2. A Dedicated Recovery Environment
A "clean room" recovery space - isolated from production systems and external networks - is vital for all organizations. This allows tech teams to recover from attacks with the risk of reinfection from malicious code.
It’s key, however, to test this recovery infrastructure regularly. When an attack occurs, a well-maintained recovery environment reduces the time to restore normal operations with minimal data loss or downtime.
3. Air-Gapped Backup Systems
Backups stored on the same network as production systems are vulnerable during an attack. Air-gapped storage, by contrast, maintains critical data in physically isolated environments, safeguarding it from compromise.
This separation is non-negotiable. It ensures that, even in the event of a breach, clean backups are readily available to support system restoration.
4. Clear Incident Response Protocols
When infrastructure is under threat, a rapid response is vital. That requires coordination across teams. Yet that often doesn’t happen; research suggests more than four in 10 (42%) of organizations are lacking clarity on roles and responsibilities during a cyber incident, increasing costs and risk.
Tech leaders can bridge the gap with a clearly defined incident response plan, assigning specific duties to team members. These protocols should be dynamic, evolving with emerging threats, and regularly validated with incident drills.
5. Metrics That Measure Readiness
A data-driven approach is also key. Metrics such as recovery time objectives (RTO), incident response time, and the success rate of recovery drills provide a quantifiable view of organizational preparedness.
With frequent evaluations of these metrics, CIOs can identify weaknesses, refine strategies, and develop recovery capabilities over time.
How to measure cyber resilience
There are seven key metrics with which tech leaders can evaluate cyber resilience, giving a 360 degree view of the organization’s ability to prevent and recover from cyber incidents. They are:
1. Completeness of Attack Scenarios
Most organizations focus on common threats, such as ransomware. They tend, however, to neglect higher-impact, lower-likelihood scenarios: ‘Black Swan’ events. Identifying a broader range of risks ensures all stakeholders are prepared for both the expected and the unprecedented.
2. Quality of Documentation
All policies and procedures need to be documented with maximum detail. Regular reviews and board-level sign-off ensures preparedness across the business, allowing for rapid decision-making under pressure.
3. Effectiveness of Security Controls
Testing preventive and detective controls against real-world scenarios is essential. Simulating such attacks helps organizations understand the limits of cyber defenses and improve protocols for damage containment and recovery.
4. Recovery Time Objectives (RTO)
RTO is defined as the highest acceptable downtime for critical systems when under threat. Ambitious RTO targets are needed for all organizations, as is continually testing their ability to meet those targets in the face of advanced persistent threats.
5. Incident Response Speed
Quick attack detection and containment are critical to cyber resilience. Minimizing response times prevents lateral movement within networks, containing financial and operational risk.
6. Recovery Drill Success Rate
The effectiveness of recovery plans is best gauged through drills. Failures highlight gaps, while repeated success builds confidence in the organization’s ability to withstand real-world threats.
7. Workforce Preparedness
Human error is often the weakest link in any cyber security mesh. The percentage of employees trained in cyber resilience protocols, particularly around phishing and social engineering attacks, is a key measure of organizational readiness; regular training ensures individual staff are aware of and can act on current cyber security policy.
SBM can be your first line of defense.
Still struggling to identify the biggest cyber security risks for your organization? With a legacy of 40+ years building market-leading, end-to-end IT solutions, SBM can help. Get in touch to arrange a consultation.