Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) for Security Controls
Average time between failures or degradations of critical security controls
Current Value
97.4 days
+12.3% from previous period
Industry average: 68 days
Calculation Method
Average time period between detected failures or degradations of security controls
Significance
This KPI measures the reliability and stability of your security controls, indicating how frequently security systems experience failures that could create windows of opportunity for attackers.
Definition
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) for Security Controls measures the average time between failures, degradations, or outages of critical security systems and controls. This includes failures of security monitoring tools, endpoint protection systems, network security controls, authentication systems, and other critical security infrastructure.
Significance
When security controls fail or degrade, they create windows of opportunity for attackers. Frequent failures not only increase risk but also consume security team resources for troubleshooting and recovery, diverting attention from other security activities.
This KPI helps security teams identify reliability issues in security infrastructure and prioritize improvements to increase the stability and effectiveness of security controls.
Calculation Method
The calculation includes:
- Total operational time of security controls
- Number of failures or significant degradations during the measurement period
- Formula: Total Operational Time / Number of Failures
Note: This metric is often broken down by:
• Control type (endpoint protection, network security, authentication, etc.)
• Severity of failure (complete outage vs. partial degradation)
• Impact scope (enterprise-wide vs. limited impact)
• Root cause categories (software bugs, configuration errors, resource constraints, etc.)
Current Performance
Our MTBF for security controls has improved from 86.7 days to 97.4 days over the past 12 months.
• Endpoint Protection Systems: 112.3 days MTBF
• Network Security Controls: 94.8 days MTBF
• Authentication Systems: 128.5 days MTBF
• Security Monitoring Tools: 86.2 days MTBF
• Data Protection Controls: 92.7 days MTBF
Benchmark
Industry average: 68 days MTBF for security controls
Best practice target: >120 days MTBF, with higher targets for critical security infrastructure