Non-quality is the total cost created by defects and process drift, not just the parts or outputs that are obviously discarded. In cyber security, that broader view matters because a “small” mistake can consume time and risk across the whole operation: insecure code that needs rework, misconfigurations that trigger extra validation, alert noise that forces manual checking, and exceptions that become normal because teams are under pressure to keep systems running.
Attackers often benefit from non-quality because weak controls, skipped steps, and configuration drift create gaps that are hard to notice in routine work. Defenders measure non-quality to find where security is wasting capacity and where control failures are being absorbed instead of fixed. Tracking patch exceptions, repeated incidents, false positives, and manual workaround effort helps turn hidden security debt into actionable evidence before it becomes a breach path.