Mandiant Global Median Dwell Time Deteriorates from 11 to 14 Days

Oh snap. My single most important cybersecurity metric deteriorated again.

In the M-Trends report for calendar year 2024, Mandiant’s global median dwell time metric worsened from 10 to 11 days. In the newest report, released today, for calendar year 2025, that metric worsened again, from 11 to 14 days.

In other words, organizations are taking even longer to detect and respond to intrusions. 10 days was already still too much, in a world where teams need to detect and contain in an hour to be effective.

I’m not a doomer. We made amazing progress since 2011, when median global dwellers time was over 400 days. But, two bad years in a row has never happened. Before last year, the metric had always improved!

It’s possible Mandiant is just dealing with ever tougher cases. I have to dig into the full report.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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