A new two-page Educause paper by Shirley C. Payne from the University of Virginia and Stephen A. Vieira from the Community College of Rhode Island succinctly explains the purpose and utility of information security metrics.
"An information security metric is an ongoing collection of measurements to assess security performance, based on data collected from various sources. Information security metrics measure a security program’s implementation, effectiveness, and impact, enabling the assessment of security programs and justifying improvements to those programs. Effective metrics can bring visibility and awareness to the underlying issue of information security and highlight effective efforts through benchmarking, evaluation, and assessment of quantified data. This can put institutions in a proactive stance regarding information security and demonstrate support for leadership’s priorities."
Although written for educational institutions, the principles are universally applicable to any organization that secures information.
By referring specifically to IT security and the IT function, the paper introduces a subtle bias towards technical metrics. Personally, I would have emphasized using enterprise and information security strategies rather than IT to drive the selection of metrics - but that's a small quibble with an otherwise well-written paper.
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