The API Security Metric That Actually Matters

How many times have you sat in a security meeting where someone proudly announces:

“We found 1,287 API vulnerabilities last quarter!”

And everyone nods as if that number means something.

The uncomfortable truth is: that number is meaningless on its own.

In fact, focusing too much on how many vulnerabilities were found can create a false sense of security. While your team celebrates discovering thousands of flaws, attackers only need one unpatched vulnerability to cause serious damage.

The Metric That Actually Matters

Instead of measuring security success by how many vulnerabilities you identify, the real question is:

How quickly are we fixing the critical issues once they are found?

This is known as Mean Time to Remediation (MTTR)—the time it takes from identifying a vulnerability to fully resolving it.

This is the metric that truly determines security effectiveness because:

• Finding vulnerabilities does not automatically make you more secure. If they remain unpatched, they are still exploitable.

• A company that fixes 500 vulnerabilities promptly is in a better security position than one that leaves five critical flaws unaddressed for weeks.

• Attackers can exploit known vulnerabilities in less than 24 hours, making remediation speed a key defense strategy.

• Measuring how fast issues are resolved provides insight into whether security efforts are actually preventing breaches, rather than just identifying risks.

How to Improve Your MTTR Without Overwhelming Your Team

1. Stop Treating Every Vulnerability as a Critical Issue

One of the biggest reasons security teams struggle with remediation is poor prioritization. If everything is labeled as urgent, then nothing actually is. Teams get overwhelmed, important issues get lost in the noise, and critical vulnerabilities take longer to fix.

To avoid this, adopt a risk-based approach to prioritization. When evaluating a vulnerability, ask these three key questions:

• Is it exploitable? Just because a scanner flags a vulnerability does not mean an attacker can actually use it. Focus on flaws with proven exploitability.

• Is it exposed? If the affected system is internal and well-protected, the urgency to fix it may be lower than if it is public-facing or connected to critical workflows.

• Is there a proof-of-concept (PoC)? If hackers are actively exploiting this type of vulnerability in the wild, it should be treated with the highest urgency.

By filtering out low-risk vulnerabilities, teams can focus on resolving the most dangerous issues first, reducing the likelihood of an actual breach.

2. Make the Fixing Process Easier for Developers

Security teams often assume that once they report a vulnerability, developers will immediately fix it. In reality, security fixes compete with feature development, bug fixes, and technical debt. If resolving a vulnerability is complicated, time-consuming, or unclear, it is likely to be delayed.

To make remediation as seamless as possible:

• Provide pre-approved patches so developers do not have to research and implement fixes from scratch.

• Automate fixes where possible by generating pull requests with the necessary changes for common vulnerabilities.

• Ensure vulnerability reports are clear and actionable. Instead of vague descriptions like "CVE-2023-12345 detected, please fix it," provide specific guidance, including affected components, potential impact, and step-by-step instructions for remediation.

When security becomes an enabler instead of a roadblock, developers will be far more likely to prioritize fixing vulnerabilities.

3. Start Tracking Metrics That Drive Real Security Improvements

Security teams tend to measure their success based on how many vulnerabilities they discover. While discovery is important, it does not tell the full story. Instead, organizations should track metrics that reflect how effectively vulnerabilities are being remediated.

Key metrics to focus on include:

• Percentage of critical vulnerabilities fixed within a set timeframe (such as 24 hours or 7 days).

• The average number of days vulnerabilities remain unresolved, broken down by severity level.

• Trends over time to assess whether remediation speed is improving or slowing down.

Shifting the focus from discovery to resolution ensures that vulnerabilities do not linger for weeks or months, reducing the window of opportunity for attackers.

Your Next Steps (Actionable Checklist)

1️⃣ Review your most recent critical API vulnerability. How long did it take to fix? If it was more than a few days, identify what caused the delay.

2️⃣ Find one security ticket labeled “urgent” that is more than a week old. Investigate why it has not been resolved yet and what could have sped up the process.

3️⃣ Reply to this email with your biggest challenge in reducing MTTR. I’ll send you specific recommendations to help you fix vulnerabilities faster.

If you need help streamlining your security response, let’s talk.

👉 Book a free consultation here
👉 Follow me on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the latest in API security.

See you in the next one. 🔥

Talk soon,
Damilola

P.S. Even the best security team in the world is vulnerable if they are slow to patch. How long are your critical vulnerabilities really sitting open?