IT Security and ROI
Cyber Security and ROI is a tricky one. The return on your investment, it's not profit. Implementing a solid cyber security plan isn't going to MAKE you money, in most cases. It will however, protect your company's bottom line in the long run and in some cases it might be the difference between your company existing at all or becoming insolvent. Breaches on your company's network can be devastating in a whole myriad of ways. Not only can data recovery abd crisis mitigation be an absolute money pit but It can also ruin client trust, destroy months of scheduling and ruin a hard built reputation and image.
When calculating the ROI of a particular IT Solution we need consider the follow.
Annualized Loss Expectancy (ALE) — The estimated amount of money that will be lost in a single security incident (single loss expectancy) multiplied by the estimated frequency that a threat will strike within a year (annualized rate of occurrence).
Mitigation Ratio — Unlike ALE, this is an approximate number. The best approach is to assess the predicted number of mitigated risks based on a scoring algorithm established in the organization. For example, a company is considering investing in a data discovery solution that is expected to reduce the current data security risk by 85%, so the mitigation ratio equals 85%.
Cost of Solution — This is the only independent index in this equation. It includes all costs associated with solution purchase, implementation and maintenance. High overall cost can easily negate the value of security investments, so it is important to evaluate ROSI before making a purchase.
Regularly measuring the effectiveness of cybersecurity efforts is essential to avoid security incidents. There are so many options on the market that IT professionals find it difficult to understand which ones are worth the investment and efforts for implementation.
Evaluation of basic security metrics can serve as a good starting point and bring even more benefits if organizations do this on a regular basis. Accurately calculated, security metrics will provide actionable data about how well current IT security strategy and investments are working, determine which areas need improvements, and evaluate proposed new security investments so organizations allocate budget wisely.