WHITE PAPER | IT GOVERNANCE

KRI BASICS
FOR IT
GOVERNANCE
How information technology and information security can
implement this crucial part of risk management.

This document will give you a foundational understanding of KRIs and guide you
towards getting started with your own KRI program.
 WHITE PAPER | IT GOVERNANCE

What you’ll learn

We address some of the most common challenges of implementing,
managing, and maintaining key risk indicators (KRIs) within your
IT department.

By the time you’ve finished reading this white paper, you’ll be armed
with enough information to start implementing your own KRI program.

Contents
Indicators: purpose and role in your organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What do KRIs do?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Leading, lagging, and current KRIs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
How many KRIs should you have?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Good KRI checklist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Example KRIs to get you started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Business interruption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Reputational damage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Breach of customer information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Selecting your own KRIs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

KRI selection (worksheet):. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Next steps: workflows and reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Get started on your IT governance process with ACL. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Additional resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
About ACL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2
The purpose and role of KPIs, KRIs, and KCIs
Before we dig into KRIs, we first want to look at the type of metrics that well-governed
organizations track. These include:

Indicator metric What does it measure? What’s the purpose? Who is the audience?
Key Performance Indicator KPIs measure how They provide directional Strategic KPIs: Most often
(KPI) effectively the organization insight on how you’re executive management and
is achieving its business progressing towards the board.
objectives. strategic objectives, or the Operational KPIs: Most
effectiveness of specific often managers, operational
business processes or process owners, and
control objectives. department heads.
Key Risk Indicator KRIs measure how risky They provide early warning Strategic KRIs: Most often
(KRI) certain activities are signals when risks (both executive management and
in relation to business strategic and operational) the board.
objectives. move in a direction Operational KRIs: Most
that may prevent the often managers, operational
achievement of KPIs. process owners, and
department heads.
Key Control Effectiveness KCIs measure how well They provide direct insight Most often front-line
Indicator (KCI) controls are working. into a specific control activity, control activity owners.
procedure, or process which
was not implemented or
followed correctly.

The Institute of Operational Risk states that the difference between

risk, control effectiveness, and performance indicators is largely
conceptual. They say “The same piece of data may indicate different
things to different users of that data, implying that the nature of an
indicator changes depending on its use.”
 WHITE PAPER | IT GOVERNANCE

What do KRIs do?

KRIs help monitor and control risks. They link back to a range of operational risk management activities and processes,
including risk identification; risk and control assessments; and the implementation of risk appetite, risk management, and
governance frameworks.
Basically, a risk indicator can be any metric used to identify a change in risk exposure over time. They become KRIs when
they track a critical risk, or do so especially well because of their predictive value. It’s ideal if they do both.

Define objectives Identify risks Create indicators/controls

STRATEGIC KEY RISK

RISK INDICATOR
OBJECTIVE
Breach of customer Number of concurrent
Minimize the possibility
information system logins using the
of a data breach
same ID

1 2 3

Monitor and flag issues Assign tasks Remediate

AUTOMATED
KRI EXCEEDS RISK IS
WORKFLOW
THRESHOLD MITIGATED
TRIGGERED
Risk of customer
More than one login Alerts are sent and
data breach has
using the same ID follow-up tasks
been reduced
assigned

4 5 6

Example:
The organization has a (1) strategic objective to minimize the possibility of a data breach. A (2) key risk in this case could be
the breach of customer information. So, a (3) KRI might be the number of concurrent system logins using the same ID.
Once a certain (4) threshold is met (more than one login using the same ID), (5) alerts and follow-up workflows can be set
to engage the appropriate people so they will (6) take action, which results in reduced risk of customer data breach.

Any number of KRIs can be applied to this model. It’s a great way
to get started with automating some more of those repetitive,
monotonous (yet critical) tasks.
4
Leading, lagging, and current KRIs
KRIs can provide information on the current state of your risk, as well as events that might happen in the future, or events
that happened in the past. These are classified as:
1 Leading indicators. Emerging risk trends for events that 2 Current indicators. Where you currently sit with your
might happen in the future and need to be addressed. risk exposure. For example, the number of staff who
For example, the number of employees who click on haven’t completed mandatory security training.
fake phishing emails. 3 Lagging indicators. Events which took place in the past
and could occur again. For example, the time between
employee termination and deletion of accounts.

Dan Zitting, chief customer experience officer at ACL, says:

“In my experience, KRIs deliver substantially more value when
they’re either leading or current. This is because of their
predictive nature relative to the business objective or KPI that
they support. While current indicator KPIs measure performance,
the best KRIs help us predict how to improve that performance.”

How many KRIs should you have?

Too much data can be overwhelming. Too little, and you’re not going to gain any insight or could be missing critical risk
indicators. According to the Institute of Operational Risk, there is no right or wrong answer for how many risk indicators you
should have, but they suggest considering the:
»» number and nature of the key risks identified

»» availability of the data needed for the KRIs

»» cost to extract the data

»» intended audience.

Good KRI checklist

Good KRIs share a number of characteristics.
❏❏Relevant: the indicator/data helps identify, quantify, ❏❏Easy to monitor: the indicator/data should be simple
monitor or manage risk and/or risk consequences that and cost effective to collect, parse, and report on.
are directly associated with key business objectives/ ❏❏Auditable: you should be able to verify your indicator/
KPIs. data, the way you sourced it, aggregated it, and
❏❏Measurable: the indicator/data is able to be quantified reported on it.
(a number, percentage, etc.), is reasonably precise, ❏❏Comparable: it’s important to be able to benchmark
comparable over time, and is meaningful without your indicator/data, both internally and to industry
interpretation. standards, so you can verify the indicator thresholds.
❏❏Predictive: the indicator/data can predict future
problems that management can preemptively act on.
 WHITE PAPER | IT GOVERNANCE

“The intended audience and purpose is really the most important

thing to consider,” says Dan Zitting, chief customer experience
officer at ACL. “By clearly separating strategic KRIs supporting
strategy-level business objectives from operational KRIs
supporting operational or process-level objectives, KRIs become
naturally managed into groups that are digestible and useful to
the intended audiences.

At the strategic/enterprise level, I’ll typically target having no

more than 15 to 30 strategic risks (depending on the size and
scope of strategic objectives in the organization’s strategic plan),
and no more than a few KRIs per strategic risk.

So at the strategic level, we often find a KRI library of 20 to 30

total—one that can cover the strategic health of the enterprise,
but also roughly the high end of what can be consumed in the
strategy-level executive and board conversation.

At the operational/process level, good value is found in the range

of 3 to 12 operational risks per process, as outside that range
probably indicates a process either really isn’t a process or a
process needs to be broken up into multiple processes.

Typically, an operational risk has a one-to-one relationship with

the relevant KRI, thus typically no more than 5 to 15 KRIs per
process area. Summary KRIs (i.e., a KRI itself that is the number of
positive or negative KRIs below) may be used for business unit
managers to get more holistic perspective on the operational
health of their complete sphere of accountability.

6
Example KRIs to get you started
Now you know what KRIs do, what makes a good KRI, and how KRIs differ (and relate to) KPIs and KCIs. The next step is
identifying the KRIs that would work for your organization or team. But choosing which KRIs to implement isn’t always as
easy as picking from a universal set of indicators—especially when it comes to IT governance.

First, each business or organization has a number of Second, KRIs are not static. They need to be monitored and
different factors that come into play—like objectives, updated as your business objectives change and evolve.
culture, products, processes, and other activities—that will This will be unique to almost every organization and the
define which KRIs should be monitored. For IT governance, main reason why going off a list shouldn’t be your only
your lists of KRIs will vary based on the products you offer, approach.
who you’re regulated by, where you are operating, and your
organization’s unique objectives and priorities.

To provide some potential KRIs for IT governance, we first looked to the Global Cyber Risk Perception Survey by Marsh and
Microsoft to determine what risks are top of mind with IT execs. The data showed that the risks which have the highest
potential impacts on the business include (in order):
1 Business interruption.
2 Reputational damage.
3 Breach of customer information.
4 Data or software damage.
5 Extortion or ransomware.
6 Third-party liability resulting from systems breaches.
7 Disruption/interruption of industrial systems or other
operational technology.
8 Loss/theft of intellectual property.
9 Contingent business interruption (supply chain).
10 Physical property damage and/or bodily injury.
These risks could damage an organization—possibly to the
point of collapse. So it’s surprising to learn that one-third of
IT execs surveyed by Deloitte admit they have little or no IT
governance process in place.
While each organization will have unique enterprise or
organizational risks, we’ve defined 15 KRI examples, linked
to the top three risks from the Global Cyber Risk Perception
Survey by Marsh and Microsoft.

Across the globe, execs are focused on high-impact risks,

but one-third have little or no IT governance process.
 WHITE PAPER | IT GOVERNANCE

Business Interruption
Associated Risk Measurable KRI Nature Why you should track this Applicable

Vendor service Number of applications All Without an SLA, your organization may be
interruption currently running engaging with a high-risk vendor. The vendor
in the organization may not adhere to your regulations (?) or they
without a service level could end service at any moment, causing a
agreement. disruption in the business.
ISP failure Number of ISP outages. Leading High numbers of outages can be an indicator
that it’s time to change providers. Especially if
you provide online services, outages can mean
business comes to a full stop.
Loss of data Number of system Lagging New or upgraded software can cause backup
backup failures due to failure, or there could be misconfigurations
software failure. due to overly customizable software that
result in backup failures.

Lack or misappropriation Total discrepancy Lagging Being overspent in IT can mean critical or
of IT budget (dollars) of IT budget new tools go unfunded. Being underspent can
versus actual. mean IT is overlooking important investments,
or is not budgeting correctly.
Lack or misappropriation Average amount of All Higher time to close tickets can indicate a lack
of IT personnel time to resolve IT of resources, which may lend itself to larger,
support requests. undiscovered issues which could interrupt the
business.

Reputational Damage
Associated Risk Measurable KRI Nature Why you should track this Applicable

Terminated employees Average time between Lagging Allowing terminated employees to

accessing systems employee termination continue to access data and systems
and deletion of could lead to serious data breaches.
accounts/termination
of access to all systems.
Unaddressed critical Time to resolve a Lagging Extended time to resolve a critical
incidents critical incident and incident may infer that the organization’s
the number of critical critical incident procedure requires an
incidents. overhaul.
Loss of hardware/physical Number of company- Lagging Monitoring software can locate a lost or
assets issued phones without stolen phone, and wipe the data before it
monitoring software gets into the wrong hands. All company-
installed. issued phones should have this software
installed.
Anonymous data leak Number of active Leading Pre-configured default database
default database administrator accounts means if an event
administrator accounts. were to happen, you can’t tie it back to
an individual and resolve the issue.
Breach of GDPR Time to respond to Lagging Massive fines are now starting to be
compliance requests for personal issued for organizations who breach
data. GDPR. This could cause serious financial
and reputational damage.

8
Breach of Customer Information
Associated Risk Measurable KRI Nature Why you should track this Applicable

Shared login credentials Number of concurrent Lagging Could indicate an employee has
system logins using the shared their login credentials with an
same ID. unauthorized individual who should not
have access to confidential information.
Improper security Total number of users All This could indicate that one employee
assignments with similar roles but may be accessing customer data files that
dissimilar security they should not.
assignments.
Malware Number of employees Leading By setting up and testing employees
who click on IT-sent with fake phishing emails, you can
phishing emails. identify employees that require additional
security training.
Employees unaware Pass/fail results for Leading Employees who fail or do not complete
of what defines employee information security training on a regular basis
confidential information security training increase risk of customer information
initiatives. being shared.
Hackers access systems Number of users whose Leading Employees who don’t update passwords
via password cracking passwords are over on a regular basis can expose the
expiry/change date. organization to increased risk of breach.
 WHITE PAPER | IT GOVERNANCE

Selecting your own KRIs

According to the Institute of Operational Risk, there are two ways to select indicators for your
organization.
1 Top-down. Senior management and/or directors select 2 Bottom-up. The business entity or process manager
indicators to monitor across the business. Typically the selects and monitors the indicators they see as relevant
most effective approach for strategic-level KRIs. within their operational processes. Ensures business entity
Top-down KRIs can facilitate aggregation and managers select indicators most relevant to the actual
management understanding in the context of top-level operational objectives of their entity and processes.
strategy and business objectives.

Many organizations use a combination of bottom-up and top-down, particularly to capture KRIs into the appropriate
context of strategic versus operational. We’ve included a blank worksheet here with an example to help you uncover
your own KRIs.

KRI selection (worksheet):

DEFINE
BUSINESS ESTABLISH SET KEY MONITORING
SOURCES OF
OBJECTIVE KRI THRESHOLDS FREQUENCY
RISK

Number of concurrent
Minimize the possibility Users sharing login More than one login
system logins using the Real-time.
of a data breach. credentials. using the same ID.
same user ID.

10
 Next steps: Workflows and reporting

Automating Data Analysis and Workflows Reporting and dashboards

All of these KRIs—because they have specific, measurable You can also use the data to create real-time storyboards so
thresholds—can be dynamically updated through continuous you can, at any time, get a pulse on the health of your
monitoring and analysis. Once thresholds are exceeded, an internal controls. This provides you with instant reporting,
automated workflow is initiated to ensure and track accessible to your teams and management, to help improve
follow-up and remediation. the communication and show the efforts being made to
mitigate enterprise risk by the IT group.

Information technology governance:

Best practices to prevent data breaches
With each new data breach, it becomes more and more evident that IT governance is critical and
data breaches must be looked at as an organizational risk—after all, they have the power to totally
cripple the business and disrupt operations, impacting the bottom line.

www.acl.com/it/information-technology-governance

Get started on your IT governance process with ACL

As a CIO, CTO, information security manager, or IT auditor, how do you keep your IT teams running efficiently
and productively while also establishing or maintaining a rock-solid governance program?

The answer is IT governance software. Here’s how to get started.

www.acl.com/it/it-governance-software
 WHITE PAPER | IT GOVERNANCE

Additional resources
Developing Practical Key Risk Indicators for Operational Risks
in Technology, the RMA Journal, 2008
Managing IT risk in a fast-changing environment EMEIA FSO IT
Risk Management Survey June 2013
Risk Reporting & Key Risk Indicators, a case study
IT Applications for ACL Data Analytics

About ACL
We deliver software solutions that transform audit,
compliance, and risk management. With intuitive software,
embedded regulatory content, and on-demand training, we
help break down the silos across teams and create
consistency throughout your financial institution.
Our cloud-based governance, risk management and
compliance (GRC) platform and flagship data analytics
products are used within all levels of financial institutions.
And with over 30 years of experience (not to mention over
900 current banking and credit union clients), ACL quickly
helps customers like you be more competitive, keep the
cost of compliance down, and balance your risks to achieve
growth targets.
Visit us online at www.acl.com

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