What is the definition of MTTD?

MTTD or Mean Time to Detect is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of incident management that denotes the average time it takes to detect a security incident in a software system.

What does MTTD stand for?

MTTD is an acronym that stands for Mean Time to Detect. It indicates how long it takes to identify a problem that has led to a system error.

What is an example of MTTD?

MTTD is the total time it takes to detect system incidents divided by the number of incidents. So, for example, if the total amount of time it takes in a week for a development team to detect an issue is 100 minutes and the number of incidents is 5, the MTTD is 20.

There's no ‘good’ MTTD per se as it depends on multiple factors, such as project requirements, system complexity, team composition, and so on. However, you should always aim to keep it as low as possible.

How do you calculate MTTD?

You can calculate MTTD with a very simple formula – the sum of all the incident detection time divided by the number of incidents that occurred.

Why is MTTD important?

MTTD is important for a number of reasons, such as: 1) Fixing security incidents and preventing system downtime 2) Improving incident response and management strategies 3) Aligning with security protocols and industry regulations

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