Weighted criteria are a scoring method that assigns different importance levels to evaluation factors. Instead of treating every factor equally, a reviewer gives higher weight to the items that matter most, such as detection quality, deployment effort, cost, or vendor support. The final score reflects both the score of each factor and its assigned priority.
In cyber security, weighted criteria are common in product selection, risk assessments, and control comparisons because not every requirement has the same impact. For example, a secure web gateway might be scored on price, capability, and integration fit, with capability weighted more heavily for a high-risk environment. This helps teams make decisions that match business needs, but it can also be abused if the weights are chosen to favor a preferred tool. Good practice is to define the weights before evaluation, document them, and apply them consistently so the result is transparent and defensible.