Are Security Metrics Too Complicated for Management? - Tripwire, Inc

July 10, 2013 11:58 am Published by Shelley Boose

Tripwire, Inc today announced the results of the second installment of research on the state of risk-based security management with the Ponemon Institute.

The survey covers risk-based security metrics and evaluates the attitudes of 1,321 respondents (749 U.S. and 571 U.K.) from IT security, IT operations, IT risk management, business operations, compliance/internal audit and enterprise risk management.

Key findings from the survey include:

• 75 percent of respondents say metrics are ?important? or ?very important? to a risk-based security program
• 53 percent don?t believe or are unsure that the security metrics used in their organizations are properly aligned with business objectives
• 51 percent didn?t believe or are unsure that their organizations metrics adequately convey the effectiveness of security risk management efforts to senior executives

When asked, ?Why don?t you create metrics that are well understood by senior executives??:

• 59 percent said the information is too technical to be understood by non-technical management
• 48 percent said pressing issues take precedence
• 40 percent said they only communicate with executives when there is an actual security incident
• 35 percent said it takes too much time and resources to prepare and report metrics to senior executives
• 18 percent said senior executives are not interested in the information

Commenting on these results, Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, said, ?Even though most organizations rely on metrics for operational improvement in IT, more than half of IT professionals appear to be concerned about their ability to use metrics to communicate effectively with senior executives about security.?

?These results correlate with the dozens of conversations we have been having with CISO?s across the globe,? said Rekha Shenoy, vice president of marketing and corporate development at Tripwire.

?CISO?s talk about the importance of leveraging metrics as a way to influence business leadership and build a risk management practice within their companies. Unfortunately, they struggle with the bigger challenge of producing meaningful metrics while those they use are rarely aligned with business goals.?

For more information about the survey please visit: ?http://www.tripwire.com/ponemon/2013/#metrics.

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P.S. Have you met John Powers, supernatural CISO?

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Title image courtesy of ShutterStock

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Tags: analytics, Connecting Security to the Business, Enterprise Security, Executives, Ponemon, Risk management, Risk-Based Security Management, Security Metrics

Categories: Connecting Security to the Business, Risk Management

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This post was written by?

Shelley Boose has contributed 11 posts to The State of Security.

Contact Shelley Boose

Shelley Boose is the Public Relations Director for Tripwire, and possesses the unique ability to effectively facilitate the production of PR and media material from a wide variety of resources. Shelley has extensive professional relationships with top journalists from a wide number of publications, and with her more than fifteen years of experience in the PR game, she is an important part of Tripwire's corporate communications team.

Source: http://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/it-security-data-protection/risk-mgmt/are-security-metrics-too-complicated-for-management/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=are-security-metrics-too-complicated-for-management

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