Network Security Metrics: Vital Ingredients for Measuring Networks Security

Networks are vulnerable. Attacks damage availability of network services and the reputation of the organizations. Researchers are trying hard to solve the puzzle of security. Nevertheless, the more we solve it, new challenges emerge and making it an unsolvable paradox. The security needs 'measurement' to catch up with the ever-increasing vectors, which in turn brings the 'Security Metrics' into the scene. Security metrics make the network more resilient and but they should be practical enough to make real-world predictions. To conceptualize and develop the metrics, one faces challenges as their development is easier said than done. This work explores the literature to find out the works done in this direction and highlights their merits besides analyzing the challenges in developing these metrics. We show ways to overcome these challenges along with the must-have ingredients of security metrics. This work aims to combine the strengths of best practices in developing efficient heuristics that accurately and inclusively assess the network security. We also propose four classes of network security metrics along with a simple methodology to develop the simple, effective and viable security metrics.