What are the most important metrics to track during an incident?

I would say a few good metrics to capture would be, the time taken to detect an incident from the moment it occurs. This metric is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of your detection capabilities. Also, the time required to restore systems and operations back to normal after the incident has been contained and eradicated. Consider capturing the number of systems, applications, or data records affected by the incident. Another good metric is volume and sensitivity of data lost or compromised during the incident, if it’s possible. Finally capture some information regarding the speed and effectiveness of communication with stakeholders during the incident.

In the context of "Time to Detect" as a key metric during an incident, the most important aspect to track is the duration from the initial compromise or indication of an incident to its detection. This metric is crucial as it reflects the effectiveness and speed of the security systems and protocols in identifying potential security incidents, directly impacting the ability to respond and mitigate damage promptly. A shorter time to detect is indicative of a more efficient and responsive incident detection capability.

An incident response process in cybersecurity often involves various metrics, but focusing on "Time to Detect" (TTD) is crucial. TTD measures the time taken to detect a security incident after it has occurred. This metric is vital for several reasons: Early Detection Reduces Impact: The faster an incident is detected, the less time an attacker has to cause damage or steal data. Efficiency of Security Systems: TTD can indicate how effective your security monitoring systems are. A shorter TTD suggests that your security systems are efficiently identifying potential threats. Resource Allocation: Understanding TTD helps in allocating resources more effectively.

The "Time to Detect" is a key metric for any cyber incident, the most important thing to track is the time it takes from the initial compromise or indication of an incident to its detection, with this appropriate teams can make remediations. Tracking TTD metrics is a critical step in assessing security systems to identifying potential security incidents. This logically impacts the ability of teams to respond and mitigate potential damages. The bottom line: The quicker a team can detect an incident, the more efficient and effective their security system is.

In my experience, the top 2 metrics to track during an incident are Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean time to response (MTTR). The aim for any organisation is to lower the MTTD as it means they will be able to limit the impact cause by an incident. MTTR is critical because it shows the amount of time taken to response to an incident, after an event or compromise.

Focusing on "Time to Contain" during an incident, the key metric to track is the duration from the detection of a security incident to the point where it is successfully contained. This metric is vital as it measures the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization's response procedures in limiting the spread and impact of the incident, thereby reducing potential damage and restoring normal operations. A shorter time to contain indicates a more effective incident response capability.

"Time to Contain" (TTC) in cybersecurity refers to the duration it takes to successfully contain a security incident after it has been detected. This metric is crucial because: Limiting Damage: A shorter TTC means that the harmful effects of the incident are restricted more quickly, reducing potential damage. Operational Resilience: Quick containment ensures minimal disruption to business operations. Efficiency of Response: It reflects the effectiveness and preparedness of the incident response team. Overall, TTC is essential for minimizing the impact of security incidents and maintaining operational integrity.

It's no surprise that TTC is a valuable factor. Any customer wishes to see that their VMs are at best possible care, and showing reduction in average TTC can be very heartwarming for the customer.

Time to Contain (TTC) Tools: Firewalls and Network Segmentation Tools: Cisco Firewalls or Palo Alto Networks for controlling network traffic and isolating affected systems. Access Control Systems: Tools for managing user access, like Microsoft Active Directory, to quickly revoke access to compromised accounts. Patch Management Tools: Systems like WSUS or ManageEngine Patch Manager Plus to deploy patches to contain vulnerabilities.

Regarding "Time to Eradicate" in an incident, the essential metric is the time taken from identifying the incident to completely removing the threat from the system. This includes not only halting the immediate incident but also ensuring that the root cause and any residual effects are fully addressed. A shorter eradication time indicates a more effective and thorough resolution of security incidents.

Time to Eradicate" (TTE) in cybersecurity is the duration taken to completely remove the threat from the system after it has been contained. Its importance lies in: Ensuring Complete Resolution: TTE focuses on fully resolving the security threat, preventing recurrence. Long-Term Security: A shorter TTE indicates effective and thorough remediation measures, contributing to stronger long-term security posture. Risk Management: It's critical for mitigating future risks associated with the same vulnerability. In essence, TTE is vital for ensuring that threats are fully eliminated, enhancing overall security and preventing future breaches.

Time to Eradicate (TTE) Tools: Antivirus and Anti-Malware Software: Solutions like McAfee or Norton for removing malware from infected systems. Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Tools: Tools like Microsoft ATP that help in identifying and removing advanced threats. Forensic Analysis Tools: Software like EnCase or FTK for investigating and eradicating the root causes of incidents.

When considering "Time to Recover" during an incident, the key metric is the duration from the incident's containment to the full restoration of normal operations and services. This includes repairing any damage, restoring systems and data, and implementing measures to prevent future occurrences. A shorter recovery time signifies a more efficient and resilient incident recovery process.

"Time to Recover" (TTR) in cybersecurity refers to the duration it takes for an organization to return to normal operations after a security incident has been eradicated. The significance of TTR includes: Business Continuity: TTR is crucial for minimizing the duration of operational disruptions, ensuring business continuity. Reputation and Trust: Efficient recovery helps in maintaining customer trust and safeguarding the organization's reputation. Assessment of Resilience: TTR reflects the resilience of an organization’s infrastructure and processes in the face of security incidents.

TTR and RTO: The actual TTR should ideally meet or be less than the predefined RTO. If TTR exceeds RTO, it implies that the recovery is not as efficient as planned, potentially leading to greater than acceptable operational losses or disruptions. TTR and RPO: While TTR is about the duration of recovery, RPO focuses on data loss. A longer TTR might mean potential risk of exceeding the RPO, particularly if ongoing data changes are critical and not being backed up during the recovery process. Hence, the effectiveness of recovery procedures (TTR) can impact the ability to meet the RPO.

If a planet gets bombarded by a meteor, it does not mean that it could and would have been the only meteor. Detect > Contain > Remove > Recover But 'detection' must be continuous throughout the process across all other environments.

"Time to Learn" (TTL) in cybersecurity refers to the time taken by an organization to analyze, understand, and learn from a security incident after it has been resolved. The significance of TTL includes: Improving Future Responses: Learning from past incidents helps in refining and improving future incident response strategies. Knowledge Building: TTL is crucial for building institutional knowledge about threat patterns and effective countermeasures. Preventive Measures: It aids in identifying and implementing preventive measures to avoid similar incidents in the future. In essence, TTL is vital for continuous improvement in cybersecurity practices, enhancing the organization's ability to respond to and prevent future threats.

While this is true, it's more important to take the time to properly understand the root cause, identify lessons learned, and implement them. I'm in the camp of quality > quantity with lessons learned.

Time to Learn (TTL) Tools: Incident Reporting and Analysis Tools: Platforms like TheHive Project or IBM Resilient for documenting incidents and learning from them. Post-Incident Review and Learning Platforms: Tools like PagerDuty or Blameless that support conducting post-mortem analyses to derive lessons. Knowledge Management Systems: Systems like Confluence or SharePoint for storing and sharing knowledge gained from incidents.

While the article provides a comprehensive overview of the most common metrics, there are a couple more to consider: 1. Impact of the incident, ideally, quantitative. If helpful, this could further be broken down to direct and indirect financial losses. 2. Similar to vulnerability management, you may want to consider another "time-to" metric, such as stakeholder communication time / time to respond, as efficient comms is key to successful incident response. Additionally, just like during tabletop exercises, you may want to consider measuring effectiveness of the response according to the existing response plan (e.g. if the steps were followed, feedback etc.) and completion of the identified deficiencies as part of the "lessons learnt."

How many cyber criminals you've just bought a new car for. The number of new CISO roles you've applied for per day. The total amount of times you've said "we take security very seriously" in PR statements

Incident Severity: Prioritises responses to critical threats. No. of Incidents: Quantifies the overall threat landscape. Incident Resolution Rate: Measures successful resolutions within a timeframe. Impact on BizOps: Assesses disruption levels, guiding response priorities. Comm Effectiveness: Evaluates internal & external coordination. Post-Incident Analysis: Enhances future response capabilities. Legal & Compliance Adherence: Ensures compliance, avoiding legal repercussions. IR Cost: Calculates financial resources expended. User Awareness Impact: Assesses training effectiveness on user behaviour. Attribution Accuracy: Determines accuracy in identifying threat sources. Focus on these critical metrics for streamlined IR evaluation.

In my experience ensuring the board, C-level and top management teams understand why the organization tracks specific metrics and what the overall impact to the business is crucial to the bottom line. Additionally, assuring that the organization is investing in any remediation efforts that come out of the "time to learn" phase and measuring the process of fixing any known issues would be an important metric to track and report on.

Metrics can sometimes disconnect you from the large context of the picture . Put yourself in the head of the CEO and what questions he will ask. Use those questions and map them to metrics 1 - How long did it take to find out what happened? 2 - How many systems were compromised ? 3 - How much customer data is breached ? And so .. use the top 5 questions you can brainstorm to drive business value into your metrics