Defining Your Cyber Security Target State in 2026

Download a free, editable cyber security target state pack with threat scenarios, capability maturity models, roadmap guidance and facilitator notes – built to help you define and align your cyber security target state. No email required!

Introduction

Being able to set and align your cyber security target state is essential for any organisation that wants to reduce risk, meet compliance requirements and build resilience. Without it, priorities become scattered, investment is misaligned, and roadmaps lose direction. 

Yet many organisations find target state exercises overwhelming: 

• Maturity models can feel abstract or full of jargon 

• It’s unclear how threats, risks and capabilities connect 

• Teams struggle to agree on what “good” looks like 

• Leadership engagement is low when outputs feel too technical 

To help, we’ve created a complimentary cyber security target state resource that cuts through the noise to define your target state clearly and drive the right decisions. It’s structured, editable, and built to define your cyber destination in a way that makes sense for your organisation.

🏔️ The Challenge

Most cyber security programmes falter not because of a lack of tools, but because of a lack of direction. Common challenges include:

• Investment decisions made without clear threat prioritisation
• Capabilities developed unevenly, leaving critical gaps
• Controls that look good on paper but fail against real attack scenarios
• Lack of alignment between cyber strategy and business objectives

Despite increasing spend each year on tools and services, many organisations remain exposed because they haven’t established a clear cyber security target state. The UK Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 found that only 31% of businesses conducted a cyber risk assessment last year, meaning most have no structured way of linking threats to capabilities.

Creating an effective framework for a target state can be difficult:

• Lack of expertise – Teams struggle to translate threat analysis into maturity goals
• Time constraints – Strategic planning gets sidelined by day-to-day firefighting
• Inconsistent methods – Targets are often set subjectively, leading to uneven progress
• Compliance pressure – Regulators expect evidence-based benchmarks, not guesswork
• Low engagement – Boards and executives disengage when maturity models feel abstract

Without a structured, defensible target state, organisations risk, organisations risk setting unrealistic or incomplete objectives, leaving gaps that can result in operational disruption, compliance failures, and reputational damage.

❓ What’s in the Cyber Security Target State Template?

This editable deliverable helps you baseline, benchmark, and define your cyber security target state with confidence.

✅ Threat scenarios – Six key threats assessed: ransomware, DDoS, cyber espionage, data breach, supply chain compromise, and business email compromise

✅ Capability model – Core vs. threat-aligned capabilities, each with defined maturity levels

✅ Target state scoring – Maturity levels set objectively, justified by threat relevance and ROI

✅ MITRE ATT&CK mapping – Links threat techniques to defensive priorities

✅ Roadmap framework – Next steps for aligning current state with target state over five years

🧐 Why Use The Cyber Security Target State Template?

Because knowing your current maturity isn’t enough. If you don’t know where your target state is then you don’t know when to stop, how much to invest in certain controls or capabilities, so it is abslutely essential.

We created this cyber security target state pack based on three truths:

1. Capabilities must be tied to threats – otherwise investment is wasted
2. Clear targets drive board engagement – executives respond to evidence-based goals
3. Consistency matters – structured benchmarks avoid subjective or inconsistent assessments

This resource enables you to define your target state in a way that takes you from “we have gaps” to “we know exactly what to fix, when, and why.”

🚀 Benefits Of The Cyber Security Target State?

📣 Boost credibility – Show leadership and stakeholders a plan aligned with trusted standards such as ISO 27001, MITRE ATT&CK and NCSC guidance. It immediately conveys rigour and professionalism.

🛡️ Lower risk – Use the framework to identify your biggest exposures and demonstrate how your roadmap reduces real-world risk. It turns technical detail into clear business priorities.

📜 Support compliance – Provide visible, structured evidence of your control coverage and maturity for internal assurance, board reporting or external regulators.

🎯 Focus investment – Highlight where to invest for the strongest risk reduction and operational resilience. It helps you secure buy-in and budget from decision-makers.

What Next?

To get started:

1. Download the full cyber security target state pack (editable PowerPoint, free to use)
2. Review the six threat scenarios and mapped capabilities
3. Customise with organisation-specific context and current state data
4. Present target states to leadership for agreement

Got questions? Contact us, we’re happy to support you.