Quick Answer: Report a small set of cybersecurity metrics that connect control performance to business risk, each with a target and a trend. Good candidates cover vulnerability remediation, access review completion, incident response, training, and third-party risk. Source every metric from controls you already run, so reporting reflects real operations rather than one-off data pulls.
Technical counts, such as blocked emails or firewall events, are easy to produce but hard to act on. Executives need to know whether risk is going up or down, whether the program is meeting its commitments, and where a decision or budget is needed. A metric that cannot drive a decision usually belongs in an operational report, not a board deck.
Looking at cybersecurity metrics through the NIST CSF 2.0 perspective:
Start from commitments you have already made. If your vulnerability management standard says critical findings are fixed within a set number of days, that number is the target. If your access control standard requires quarterly reviews, the target is 100 percent completed on time. Tying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to existing standards keeps targets consistent with your documentation and avoids inventing numbers for the report. When a target is routinely missed, treat it as a signal to fix the process or resource it, not to quietly lower the bar.
A metric is only as reliable as the process behind it. If the access review procedure produces a signed record every quarter, counting completed reviews is simple and defensible. If no procedure exists, the number is a guess. That is why ComplianceForge places metrics in the Hierarchical Cybersecurity Governance Framework alongside policies, control objectives, standards, controls, risks and procedures, so each metric traces back to a requirement.
For a definition of the term itself, see what are security metrics.
The free Cybersecurity Metrics Reporting Model shows one way to structure this reporting. Frameworks such as NIST CSF 2.0 also place oversight and measurement under the Govern Function; the NIST CSF 2.0 compliance resource center has related resources. Mapping controls to the Secure Controls Framework lets one set of metrics support several frameworks at once.
A metric is any measurement, such as the number of open vulnerabilities. A KPI is a metric tied to a target that leadership has agreed matters, such as keeping critical vulnerabilities older than 30 days at zero.
Keep it short. A handful of metrics tied to business risk, each with a trend and a target, is easier to act on than a long dashboard of technical counts.
Operational metrics are often reviewed monthly by IT and security leaders, while summarized metrics go to executives or the board on their regular meeting cycle, commonly quarterly.
From the normal output of your controls and procedures. If a procedure already produces a record, such as a completed access review, you can count it without extra work.
