nCircle the leader in information risk and security performance management today announced as part of their Bellwether Metric series that the top 25% of nCircle Benchmark identity and access management community participants only experience .03% login failure. Failed login metrics are used by many organizations as a leading indicator of password management policy effectiveness and to detect brute force attacks on the network perimeter.

“Failed login metrics help organizations gauge and refine password policies,” said Jim Acquaviva, vice president of product strategy for nCircle. “Failed login attempts are a good indicator of a user communities’ ability to absorb and comply with specific policy requirements. An increase in failed user logins may indicate that one of the organization’s password hygiene variables warrants attention; ambitious password age and strength policies may cause a significant increase in support costs. Organizations that track and trend failed login attempts are also able to observe aberrations or spikes that may indicate nefarious activity in the form of brute attacks.”

Identity and access management is a security practice that manages individual user identities, their authentication and authorization on corporate networks, as well as privileges and roles. Proactively managing identity and access management policies optimizes security posture and productivity, support costs, downtime and repetitive tasks.

nCircle Benchmark's free Basic Edition Identity and Access Management Scorecard Pack measures three key performance indicators and compares the results to the Benchmark community to analyze an organization’s vulnerability management posture. The free Scorecard Pack includes:

• Account Management Trends
  • Active idle user accounts
  • Active user accounts
  • Accounts non-expiring passwords
• User Login Trends
  • Ratio of successful to non-successful login attempts
• Password Management Hygiene
  • Password age trends

nCircle Benchmark Community Bellwether Metrics are a group of simple, yet powerful, measurements that indicate the overall health of a specific security discipline, and are designed to help security professionals focus their attention where it’s needed most. In addition to antivirus and end point protection metrics, the nCircle Benchmark Community Bellwether Metrics program includes key metrics for vulnerability management, patch management, identity and access management, and configuration compliance.

About nCircle Benchmark

nCircle Benchmark is a security performance management solution that provides a comprehensive and unified view of the performance of an organization’s entire IT security program. nCircle Benchmark metrics and scorecards offer a comprehensive, at-a-glance indicator of IT security investment performance. nCircle Benchmark delivers pre-packaged, field-tested metrics and scorecards in Scorecard Packs that provide complete visibility across multiple-vendor security and compliance environments. Vulnerability Management, Configuration Auditing, Antivirus & Endpoint Protection, Identity & Access Management and Patch Management Scorecard Packs are available now, with other security disciplines coming soon. To get started, simply visit benchmark.ncircle.com.

About nCircle

nCircle is the leading provider of information risk and security performance management solutions to more than 6,500 businesses and government agencies worldwide. nCircle solutions enable enterprises of all sizes to (1) automate compliance and reduce risk, and (2) measure and compare the performance of their IT security program with their own goals and industry peers. nCircle solutions may be deployed on a customer’s premises, as a cloud-based service, or in combination, for maximum flexibility and value.

nCircle has won numerous awards for growth, innovation, customer satisfaction and technology leadership and has been ranked among the top 100 best places to work in the San Francisco Bay Area. nCircle is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with regional offices throughout the United States and in London and Toronto. To learn how you can more effectively protect your company visit us at http://www.ncircle.com.

nCircle is a registered trademark of nCircle Network Security, Inc. All other registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.