Security teams face growing demand with more tools, more data and higher expectations than ever before. The board approves a large security budget, but still ask the same question. CISOS responds with reports on control and vulnerability counts, but management wants to understand risks in terms of avoiding financial exposure, operational impact, and losses.
Cutting is becoming more difficult to ignore. Recent IBM data shows the average cost of violations reached $4.88 million. That figure not only reflects incident response, but also downtime, lost productivity, customer wear and long efforts needed to restore operational and trust. Rarely does fallout be limited to security.
Security leaders need a model that brings those results into view before they surface. Business Value Assessment (BVA) provides that model. This links exposure to costs, returns prioritization, and preventive to tangible values.
This article explains how BVA works, what it measures, and why it has become essential for organizations that understand that cybersecurity is not just an IT issue but a critical business feature.
Why Security Metrics No longer translated
Most security metrics were built for operations teams rather than business leaders. CVE counts, patch rates and tool coverage help you track progress, but do not answer questions that are important to the board. How much risk do you remove from the table? Where does this investment make a difference?
Traditional metrics are lacking for several important reasons:
They show activity rather than shock. Even though 3,000 vulnerabilities were fixed in the last quarter, it does not explain whether any of them are tied to critical systems. It tells you what has been accomplished – not something that is safer. (If you want to learn more about this topic, check out our recent webinar. It’s filled with insights of mistakes about how vanity metrics throw away your understanding of security attitudes and what to do about it.) A single misconception can look minor, until combined with identity issues or flat network segments. Most metrics do not reflect how attackers take weaknesses to reach critical assets. They rule out financial consequences. Violation fees do not fit all sizes. These rely on everything from detection times and data types to cloud complexity and staffing gaps. Most dashboards are factors that do not touch them.
BVAs can help bridge the gap between technical research findings and what your business really needs to understand. Connect exposure data to financial impact using real-world research-based violation cost modeling. The assessment must be based on input from a source, such as IBM Cost for Data Breach Reports. This outlines the factors that shape the cost of an incident. This ranges from the speed of breach to the complexity of the IT environment. IBM uses these factors to analyze the cost of violation after the fact, but can also be used to predict that costs may be in advance based on the organization’s actual attitude.
That’s where BVA appears. Instead of tracking surface-level metrics, reconfigure cybersecurity in terms of outcomes. Shift the conversation. It moves from the repair count to showing the results. You have a clear understanding of how exposure can impact, what is at risk, and where security investments can provide measurable value. This gives security leaders the context they need to support their decision-making with confidence.
Business Value Assessment: What it measures
One thing is that the risk has been reduced. It’s another to show what it means in dollars, time, or business impact. That’s what BVA intended. It connects dots between security work and the outcomes that the rest of your business actually cares about. BVA needs to focus on three things:
Cost Avoidance – What costs could a violation be incurred based on environmental risks? Cost Reduction – Where can security efforts reduce spending? This includes reducing the scope of manual testing, reducing overhead patches, or improving your insurance profile by showing a better risk attitude. Increased efficiency – How much time and effort can you save by prioritizing your team and automating things that don’t require human touch?
These real-world numbers help security leaders improve their plans, spend smarter, and make a point when decisions and budgets are on top.
Why delays and inactions cost more than you think
The economic impact of the violation increases with daily delays. Incidents containing identity-based exposures or shadow data currently take more than 290 days. Meanwhile, businesses have experienced losses in revenue, stagnant operations, and lingering reputational harm. Additionally, the IBM report shows that 70% of violations lead to major operational disruptions. Many of them do not recover completely.
The BVA clarifies its timeline. Identify the exposures that are most likely to prolong the incident and estimate the cost of that delay based on both the industry and organizational profile. It also helps to assess the return of preemptive control. For example, IBM has found that companies deploying effective automation and AI-based remediation will reduce violation costs by $2.2 million.
Some organizations are reluctant to act when values are not clearly defined. That delay costs money. The BVA should include a “cost of nothing” model that estimates the monthly losses that the company will cause by leaving exposure unexempt. We found that large companies could cost more than $500,000.
But understanding the cost of inaction is only half the battle. To truly transform results, security leaders need to use their understanding to guide their strategies and build cross-work support.
Conclusion: From spending to strategy, BVA builds alignment
There is no question how well the security team is doing their job. The problem is that traditional metrics don’t always show the meaning of your job. Patch count and tool coverage are not something the board cares about. They want to know what is actually protected. BVA helps connect dots. Shows how daily security efforts can help businesses avoid losses, save time, and stay more resilient.
It also makes difficult conversations easier. Whether you justify your budget, adhere to the board to risk, or answer questions from your insurance company, the BVA gives security leaders something solid pointing. It shows where your team is making a difference – reduce busy work, reduce third-party testing, and improve the way your organization handles risks.
And most importantly, it gets everyone on the same page. Security, IT, and finance don’t have to guess each other’s priorities. They work from the same number, focus on what really matters, and move faster when it counts.
It is this change that makes the real difference. Security stops being a “no” team and starts to become a team that helps businesses move forward. With BVA, leadership ultimately sees progress, makes smarter decisions and has a clear way to deal with risks before addressing them.
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Want to see what BVA can tell you about the risks of your organization? Check out the XM Cyber ROI Calculator and start to understand how to avoid losses, save time and stay more resilient.
Note: This expert article was contributed by David Lettvin, internal channel account manager for XM Cyber.
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