Cybersecurity Benchmarking: The Key to Unlocking Maturity and Resilience

Comparisons are often seen in a bad light– whether it’s your personal life, or your business performance. Sure, there’s no one size fits all, and why should you care what the others are up to? But what if benchmarking influences you in a better way? What if understanding what the competitors are doing better helps you improve your processes, channel your security budgets, and make more informed decisions?
Benchmarking in cybersecurity should be seen as a growth driver that helps you shape your cybersecurity strategy. Taking a tailored approach while measuring your performance against the benchmarks helps you align your security efforts in the right direction and deal with unique risks and security priorities.

This blog is your guide to cybersecurity benchmarks and how to approach them in the right way to drive meaningful insights.

What is cybersecurity benchmarking?

Cybersecurity benchmarking is the practice of evaluating an organization’s baseline security measures against industry standards, best practices, and peers to understand their effectiveness over time. The process involves tracking metrics and KPIs to assess cybersecurity performance and identify areas for improvement.

Key benchmarks for cybersecurity measurement and reporting

Choosing the right benchmarks to compare your cybersecurity performance will largely depend on your industry, risk profile, and resources. However, we have curated a general list addressing key areas that usually require improvements.

Here are 15 benchmarks for cybersecurity measurement and reporting:

Incident Management

1. Incident containment time

Incident containment time measures the time it takes to limit or minimize the spread of the damage after an incident has been detected. A shorter time indicates fast action and less downtime. It is calculated as the difference between the time of containment and the time of detection. It is measured in hours or days.

An example of the benchmark could be containing 90% of critical incidents in 1-2 hours. To improve incident containment time, organizations can use automated tools for detection and response, create incident response playbooks and conduct incident response training.

2. Incident remediation time

Incident remediation time measures the time it takes to fully resolve an incident, including the time to eliminate the root cause. The metric indicates the effectiveness of response and recovery procedures.

It is calculated as the difference between the time of full remediation and the time of detection and measured in hours or days.

Here’s an ideal benchmark : Medium-severity incidents must be remediated fully in 24 hours to 48 hours.

To enhance incident remediation time, organizations can use tools for quicker remediation and forensic analysis and ensure better communication and collaboration across teams.

3. Ransomware recovery time

Ransomware recovery time is the time taken by the organization to restore normal business operations after a ransomware attack. It also ensures that the systems do not contain any remaining threats.

It is calculated as the difference between recovery completion time and the detection time and is expressed in hours or days.

An ideal benchmark can be 24 hours for critical systems and data.

Organizations can improve ransomware recovery time by ensuring regular backups, patching vulnerabilities, and having a solid incident response plan.

4. Downtime workaround time

Downtime workaround time measures the time it takes for the organization to implement temporary solutions to keep the business up and running during unplanned events. It indicates how quickly organizations can manage interruptions and minimize business impact.

Downtime workaround time is calculated as the difference between the time at which workaround is implemented and the time of incident detection.

A workaround time of 30 minutes to 1 hour for crown-jewel systems is ideal.

Organizations can improve this time by investing in redundancy and failover systems and conducting drills to pre-plan and prepare for downtime.

Access Management

5. Account onboarding and offboarding timelines

Account onboarding and offboarding time measures the time it takes for an organization to grant access to users when they first join and remove access when they leave the organization. The metric indicates the effectiveness of identity and access management procedures.

It takes into consideration the account creation time and access revocation time.

An ideal timeline is 1-2 hours for onboarding and 30 minutes to 1 hour for access revocation.

Organizations can use automated IAM tools, clearly define roles, and standardize onboarding and offboarding procedures to improve account onboarding and offboarding timelines.

6. MFA coverage

Multi-factor authentication coverage measures the number of systems, applications, and services protected by MFA, which requires two or more verification factors to grant access. It minimizes the chances of unauthorized access and representsthe  organization’s commitment to security.

MFA coverage is calculated as a percentage of systems covered by MFA divided by the total number of systems.

It should ideally be deployed across all critical systems.

Organizations can maximize MFA coverage by educating users, using user activity monitoring tools, and conducting regular internal audits.

7. Authentication success rate

The authentication success rate measures the percentage of successful authentication attempts that verify user identity. The measurement validates the effectiveness of authentication systems and provides insights into user behavior.
It is expressed as a percentage of the number of successful authentication attempts divided by the total number of attempts.

Most organizations consider an authentication success rate >90% as an ideal score.

Organizations can improve the metric by monitoring and evaluating failures, educating users, and streamlining access management procedures.

8. Privileged access management

Privileged access management measures how access for users with privileges is managed for sensitive systems and data. It ensures that administrative accounts do not have excessive privileges where they can be misused for unauthorized purposes.

You can use different metrics for privileged access management, such as the percentage of privileged accounts with MFA enabled, the percentage of privileged accounts that are monitored and logged, the percentage of orphaned accounts, or the time taken to detect privileged account activity.

You can improve this by implementing the principle of least privilege, automating access reviews, and revoking access rights immediately when the privileged access user leaves or there are role changes.

Security Controls

9. Patching cadence

Patching cadence measures the frequency of applying patches to software and operating systems to minimize and manage vulnerabilities. It helps understand the organization’s promptness and consistency in patch management.

Patching cadence is measured as the mean time to rollout a patch or the average time taken to apply patches once the vulnerability is identified. An example of an ideal benchmark can be 7 days for critical patches after release.

Organizations can improve this frequency by using risk-based prioritization, conducting regular vulnerability scans, and having a well-defined patch management policy.

10. Endpoint protection coverage

Endpoint protection coverage measures the number of endpoints such as laptops, desktops or mobile phones, that are protected using endpoint protection tools. The metric indicates how well the organization protects endpoints to reduce attack surface area and cyber incidents.

It is expressed as a percentage of the number of protected endpoints divided by the total number of endpoints.

An ideal success metric would be 100% of endpoints covered for sensitive information.

To improve the metric, organizations must adopt Bring-Your-Own-Device policies, use MDM solutions, and establish continuous monitoring systems.

11. Cloud security coverage

Cloud security coverage measures the number of cloud assets protected through security tools. The goal is to safeguard cloud data, resources, and infrastructure from cyber threats and attacks.

Cloud security coverage is expressed as a percentage of number of cloud assets covered through security controls divided by the total number of cloud assets.

An accepted industry benchmark is 90%-95%cloud coverage percentage.

To enhance cloud security coverage, organizations can adopt cloud security posture management tools, conduct regular cloud audits, and ensure cloud configuration management.

Training and awareness

12. Training completion rates

Training completion rates measure the percentage of employees or stakeholders who have completed the mandatory cybersecurity training. The metric helps evaluate employee adherence to security and compliance requirements and the organization’s culture.

It is calculated as the number of employees who completed training divided by total number of employees required to complete training.

Organizations subject to regulatory requirements strive to achieve 100% training completion rate.

To improve the metric, organizations can integrate it into the onboarding process and set automated reminders to ensure training completion.

13. Phishing click-through rates

The phishing click-through rate measures the percentage of people who fall for and click on phishing links during a phishing test. It helps the organization understand the employees’ susceptibility to such attacks and the level of awareness.

It is calculated by dividing the number of employees who clicked the phishing link by the total number of people who received the email and multiplying by 100.

The ideal benchmark is less than 2%.

You must conduct regular phishing simulation drills and general cybersecurity training to improve the benchmark.

Third-party management

14. Third-party risk engagement

Third-party risk engagement measures how the organization manages cyber risks arising from third-party relationships. The benchmarking helps assess the organization’s ability to minimize operational, financial, cybersecurity, and compliance risks during the vendor lifecycle.

It can be calculated as a percentage of the number of vendors assessed, the number of third-party incidents, and the time taken to resolve vendor issues.

An example of the benchmark can be 100% of vendors going through risk assessments before onboarding.

Organizations must focus on risk-based vendor prioritization to enhance third-party risk engagement, conduct timely and frequent assessments, and implement automated monitoring tools.

Regulatory compliance

15. Audit success rate

The audit success rate measures the percentage of audits passed with minimal to zero non-conformities. These can be both internal or external and are critical to demonstrate the organization’s compliance posture and control effectiveness.

It is calculated as a percentage of the number of audits passed divided by the total number of audits the organization has been through.

A strong benchmark is >90% audit success rate.

Organizations can improve the metric by conducting regular internal audits, tracking remediation, and improving and using continuous monitoring mechanisms. They can use GRC tools like Sprinto to enhance audit readiness.

Check out how Sprinto ensures compliance:

Approach to cybersecurity benchmarking

Tracking key metrics covers the tactical side of things. However, from a strategic perspective, top management and other key stakeholders want to understand the overall security maturity and the efficiency and sufficiency of the measures.

For this, the organization must refer to cybersecurity frameworks and regulatory standards. They provide a fair understanding of where you stand from the cybersecurity stance.

Here’s an example: The NIST CSF implementation tiers help you understand whether you have partial security maturity, are risk-informed, or are fully agile to stay abreast of the threat landscape.

Similarly, you find maturity levels in CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) or NIST SP 800-53 baseline controls. ISO 27001 is great for information security and for designing and implementing an ISMS.

Using a framework as a benchmark helps you reach a minimum standard of cybersecurity practices while eliminating the need to establish baselines from scratch. It can also help you become compliant with other requirements.

Typically, you must follow these steps when approaching cybersecurity objectives:

• Define the purpose of the exercise, whether it’s for enhancing incident response, achieving compliance or other reasons.
• Identify the metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you’d like to evaluate
• Select a regulatory framework such as NIST CSF, ISO 27001, CIS controls or any other standard to add meaning to the findings.
• Identify peers and third-party reports for benchmarking and compare against your current state to pinpoint gaps
• Draw contextual insights by evaluating your security maturity against the framework and develop a roadmap for improvement.

The value of cybersecurity benchmarking

Cybersecurity industry benchmarking is a powerful tool for fine-tuning your efforts, identifying gaps and opportunities, and providing objective conclusions when communicating your performance.

Here are the benefits of cybersecurity benchmarking:

Determines lacking or insufficient measures

Cybersecurity benchmarking helps you compare organizational controls against widely accepted frameworks and standards. The comparison highlights lacking controls or internal control deficiencies and helps you create an action plan for mitigation. For example, if you’ve been conducting vulnerability scans infrequently, but frameworks like NIST CSF or ISO 27001 suggest regular vulnerability scans, your control is deemed insufficient.

Helps communicate performance

Consider these two statements: ‘Our phishing detection rate has significantly improved’ and ‘Our phishing detection rate is 90%, which is higher than the industry average of 80%’. The second one sounds more convincing because it communicates tangible results through cybersecurity benchmarking. The process simplifies stakeholder communication and helps you make a favorable case when seeking cybersecurity investments or resource approvals.

Enhances compliance management

Regulatory frameworks are constantly updated to reflect evolving environments, and benchmarking against these helps determine compliance gaps while preparing you for the future. Take the example of the new and popular EU AI Act. If you consider establishing some AI governance practices, you can benchmark them against the requirements and enhance compliance readiness.

Optimizes costs

Cybersecurity industry benchmarking also lets you compare performance with peers running businesses of similar size. It helps you understand whether you have been overinvesting or underinvesting in resources to achieve similar performance and if the competitors are using some cost-saving opportunities that you, too, can benefit from. The comparison can help you prioritize budgets for the right security efforts while helping you achieve cost efficiency.

Builds market credibility

Benchmarking serves as an effective tool for positioning your organization as reliable by demonstrating your commitment to improving quality, performance, and outcomes. Sharing benchmarking results, such as compliance with major standards and other performance metrics, can help accelerate the sales cycle and attract high-value clients.

What is continuous threat-informed benchmarking?

As threats evolve, periodic benchmarking exercises don’t suffice. Organizations need continuous updates and insights to power their cybersecurity strategy and proactively manage risks. Enter continuous threat-informed benchmarking.

Continuous threat-informed benchmarking goes one step ahead of traditional cybersecurity posture assessment against industry standards by using threat intelligence to monitor cybersecurity performance in real-time. It helps you stay agile by updating you on new and evolving vulnerabilities and attack patterns to enhance risk management, improve threat response capabilities and align your performance metrics.

Examples of metrics

Mean Time to Detect (MTTD): The average time organizations take to detect security breaches. 

Mean Time to Respond (MTTR): The average time organizations take to contain and mitigate an incident after detection.

Phishing detection and response: The number of phishing attacks detected by security tools.

Percentage of false positives: The percentage of wrongly flagged alerts by security systems.

Patch management cycle time: The time taken to patch vulnerabilities.

To implement continuous threat-informed benchmarking, organizations must integrate threat intelligence using threat intelligence platforms and government advisories, deploy tools for ongoing monitoring and data collection, and use findings to enhance processes.

Achieve and exceed cybersecurity benchmarks with Sprinto

While it’s beneficial to understand how you stand against the competition and how mature the organization is when benchmarking against the standards, the exercise has to be tied to the business context and supported by accurate data. CISOs and security leaders have other mission-critical tasks to prioritize, so this can surely be automated and outsourced to achieve maximum output with minimal input. Enter Sprinto.

As a next-gen GRC tool, Sprinto helps you meet and even exceed cyber security benchmarks. It is purpose-built for cloud-first companies that aim to improve their latitude in action when addressing cybersecurity risks and compliance. The platform seamlessly embeds into your tech stack using 200+ integrations and responsive APIs to build a connected view of risks and controls.
When you select an applicable framework, it automatically maps the applicable controls and eliminates the need for gathering mapping requirements from scratch. The automated and granular control testing and continuous monitoring ensure that you stay secure and compliant and send multi-channel and time-bound alerts in case of any gaps.

Sprinto also helps you set an internal audit window to evaluate whether or not you have reached the >90% mark to proceed with third-party audits. Features like in-built policy templates, training modules, role-based access controls, vendor management, and automated evidence collection further expand the scope of the GRC program.

Watch the platform in action and kickstart your journey today.

FAQs

What’s the difference between a standard and a benchmark?

A standard provides you with guidelines, security practices, and evaluation criteria, while a benchmark is a measurable reference point that helps you understand your performance against the industry standard or your peers.

What are CIS benchmark levels?

The Center for Internet Security, or CIS, has two benchmark levels: levels 1 and 2. Level 1 represents basic security settings and requirements that can be easily implemented and have minimal impact on functionality. Level 2 represents advanced security settings that provide more protection and can impact functionality.

How do companies collect benchmarking data?

You can collect benchmarking data through industry reports, government publications, market research, surveys, and public disclosures.