Why Do Bitsight Security Ratings Fluctuate?

There can be fluctuations in Bitsight Security Ratings, which coincides with the daily shifts in:

• The number of new observations.
• Adjustments when events fully decay or when records complete their lifetime and no longer impact the rating.

The displayed rating changes in 10-point increments. However, the underlying rating is computed on a finer scale.

A rounding off method is implemented to prevent small changes in the underlying rating from impacting the displayed rating, which depends on previous values of the rating. There are different criteria for when the 10-point drops versus when the rating rises by 10 points.

Rounding Method Examples

For an entity with the actual rating of 796 currently rounded up to an 800, changes in the rating can lead to the following scenarios. Note that the examples provided are representative of changes that would happen for other specific ratings (e.g., the 796 example used could have been a 696 or a 306, with the rounded ratings changing accordingly)

Actual: The actual 796 rating drops to between ≥785 and <795.

Displayed: The rating is presented as a drop from 800 to 790.

Actual: The actual 796 rating drops to between 775 and 784.

Displayed: The rating is presented with a rating drop to 780.

Actual: The actual 796 rating drops to between 765 and 774.

Displayed: The rating is presented with a rating drop to 770.

Actual: The actual 796 rating increases to between ≥800 and <805.

Displayed: The displayed rating remains 800.

Actual: The actual 796 rating increases to between ≥805 and <815.

Displayed: The rating is presented with a rating increase to 810.