How Should I Measure "Technical Debt"

In cybersecurity, technical debt refers to the implied cost of not updating technology assets such as laptops, computers, network components, software, operating systems, and applications, to maintain a minimum working condition and security posture required by the organization based on the current technology and threat landscape.

Tech debt can create vulnerabilities, leading to an increased risk of cyberattacks. Organizations should take action by monitoring their network and measuring their tech debt. Determining the areas where tech debt arises can help increase your security position.

Measuring Technical Debt

Measuring technical debt is crucial to lowering costs and increasing productivity. Organizations must track asset inventory to get a better understanding of their tech debt. Use these tips below to help control and measure your organization’s tech debt.

1. Evaluate organizational performance – Companies require complete visibility of their physical assets, their lifecycle, and functions. Evaluate company inventory and determine whether or not assets are capable of managing modern applications and if they contain any outdated hardware, software, or OS assets.
2. Manage asset lifecycle — Any end-of-life or near-to end-of-life assets used to support critical business functions may not be taken offline or replaced without severely impacting the organization. It is vital that organizations assess the lifecycle of their assets and create policies to prevent future issues. For example, organizations may require assets to be no more than one or two generations old— a rule that prevents hoarding legacy hardware in the company.
3. Assess security risks — Review assets and their security risk to the organization. This process should include monitoring for unpatchable critical assets, surveilling unmanaged physical assets, and determining whether their network infrastructure depends on equipment in unreachable locations.