Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Incident Metrics
Frequency and types of attempted data exfiltration events
Current Value
42 incidents
-18% from previous period
Industry average: 65 incidents/month
Calculation Method
Count of DLP policy violations by type (email, endpoint, network), % requiring investigation, and false positive rate
Significance
This KPI measures attempted data exfiltration events and helps identify potential insider threats, risky user behaviors, and data handling issues before sensitive information is compromised.
Definition
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Incident Metrics track the frequency, types, and outcomes of data protection policy violations detected by DLP systems. These incidents include attempted unauthorized data transfers via email, endpoints, cloud applications, and network channels.
Significance
DLP incidents serve as early indicators of potential insider threats, accidental data exposure, or gaps in data handling procedures. Monitoring these metrics helps identify high-risk users, applications, or processes before sensitive data is actually compromised.
These metrics also help measure the effectiveness of DLP policies and technologies, ensuring they're correctly tuned to balance security with business productivity.
Calculation Method
Key components of this metric include:
- Total DLP incidents: Count of all policy violations detected by DLP systems
- Incidents by channel: Breakdowns by email, endpoint, network, cloud, etc.
- Incidents by severity: Critical, high, medium, low classifications
- Investigation rate: Percentage of incidents requiring manual investigation
- False positive rate: Percentage of incidents determined to be false alarms
- Resolution actions: Types of actions taken to resolve incidents
Current Performance
DLP incidents have decreased from 51 to 42 per month over the past 12 months.
• Email incidents: 18 (-25% year-over-year)
• Endpoint incidents: 14 (-12% year-over-year)
• Cloud application incidents: 10 (-8% year-over-year)
• Investigation rate: 28% of incidents required manual review
• False positive rate: 22% (improved from 36% last year)
Benchmark
Industry average: 65 DLP incidents per month
Best practice target: Downward trend in true positive incidents; >25% reduction year-over-year