READ TIME: 22 minutes
WHO IT'S FOR: This whitepaper is written for those struggling with measuring the success or evaluating the potential impact of their cybersecurity vendors. Non-technical readers will appreciate the open-book approach to dissecting traditional metrics and the pragmatic approach to breaking down the most impactful measures available. For technical readers, there are some operational and machine learning concepts included - but non-technical stakeholders will still find the rest understandable.
WHAT'S IN IT: This piece argues that the MTTX approach to security assessment is no longer a helpful differentiator in an era of widespread machine-speed threat detection. Since everyone’s speeds are now so fast, detection quality should be the name of the game. False positives and low-value, uncontextualized alerts contribute significantly to the growing problem of staff burnout and alert fatigue. We cut through the noise of traditional metrics and lay out the most important measurables to truly gauge cybersecurity performance.
HOW IT HELPS: This whitepaper examines the issues with MTTX metrics, such as the problem that looking only at averages downplays the risk of rare but damaging outlier attacks that fall outside the mean. It makes the case that the signal-to-noise ratio is a more relevant approach to measuring security effectiveness in the new paradigm of AI-driven cybersecurity, offers considerations for prospective MDR customers looking for the right provider — and recommends valuable questions to ask companies on your shortlist.