Threat Debt: The Unit of Measure Adversaries Already Use Against You
AttackIQ, Thursday, June 25th, 2026
AttackIQ proposes threat debt as a contextual metric measuring real, exploitable organizational risk.
The article argues traditional security metrics like vulnerability counts and patch adherence no longer accurately measure organizational risk.
Rajesh Sharma introduces threat debt, the cumulative, contextualized burden of exploitable gaps weighted against adversary capabilities and critical assets.
Rather than counting all vulnerabilities, threat debt focuses on validated attack paths that actually matter.
AttackIQ proposes the Threat Debt Index, a balance-sheet metric showing current exposure as stock and quarterly changes as flow.
This lets security teams and boards track breach probability through a single meaningful number tied to real environmental data.