However flawless the assessment itself is, your beneficiary judges it by the report. Use a strong executive summary, meaningful analysis, and decision-supporting structure to give the reader what they need to decide and act.
The quality of an otherwise flawless assessment is often perceived by the quality of its report. I’ve read my share of poorly written cybersecurity assessment reports. Many included irrelevant details and were tedious. Some missed the opportunity to describe the risks and remediation approaches in meaningful and actionable ways.
Here is my list of qualities of a good cybersecurity assessment report:
- Starts with a strong executive summary that a non-technical reader can understand. Given people’s short attention span and time limitations, there’s a good chance that most readers won’t get past the executive summary. The executive summary is often the part of the report that is distributed internally beyond the group that commissioned the security assessment.
- Provides meaningful analysis, rather than merely sharing the raw output of assessment tools or AI-generated content slop. The value that an experienced assessor brings is in making sense and deriving meaning from the collected data. The report should narrate the assessor’s observations and conclusions.
- Includes supporting figures to support the analysis. Such details should be included to substantiate the findings, so that the reader can confirm that the observations are based on factual data and, in some cases, to allow the reader to replicate the discovered vulnerabilities.
- Describes assessment methodology and scope. Don’t assume that the reader will be aware of the initial discussions regarding what should be tested and how. Moreover, the report should describe the tools, approaches and techniques that the assessor employed, so that the reader can be confident in the professional and systemic approach to the project.
- Looks professional and is without typos. Though the substance of the report isn’t directly affected by the document’s look-and-feel, it’s hard for the reader to take seriously a document that looks sloppy and unprofessional. Moreover, typos distract from absorbing the text’s meaning and can offer an excuse to cast doubt on the assessor’s capabilities.
- Is structured in logical sections to accommodate the different groups who will need to read and act upon the report. Though some readers will be motivated to pay attention to the whole document, many might only care about some aspect of the assessment (e.g., application or infrastructure security). Also, the recipient might wish to distribute the report’s contents on the need-to-know basis.
- Provides context to support decision-making. The reader needs to know which observations matter most. This context is especially important when AI tools draft the report, since the tools, on their own, can’t tell which findings the beneficiary needs to act on.
Keep these points in mind when creating a document to describe your findings and recommendations. The reader acts on what you found only when they can quickly understand it and see what to do next. I’ve turned these qualities into a report template you can adapt for your own engagements.
