Asset Management

WHAT IS ASSET MANAGEMENT AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Asset Management is the process of actively tracking all enterprise IT assets. These may include on-site, co-located, or cloud-based servers and storage, end-user devices, network equipment, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and others. In addition to creating a comprehensive inventory of all assets, various data points describing the assets may also be mandated as specified in the organization’s cybersecurity policy. These typically include items such as a unique identifier for the asset (e.g., hostname, serial number, etc.), the business owner of the asset, the contact for asset support, criticality of the asset to the organization’s mission, or if the asset is authorized to connect to the organization’s network.

Understanding the devices connected to and used by the organization is an essential prerequisite to being able to protect them, and to detect and remediate any issues discovered on the assets.

CONTROLS THIS DASHBOARD REPORTS ON

The Asset Management dashboard reports on your organization’s level of compliance with these controls:

NIST CSF v2.0: Subcategory ID.AM-01 Inventories of hardware managed by the organization are maintained

PCI-DSS v4.0.1: Requirement 12.5.1 An inventory of system components that are in scope for PCI DSS, including a description of function/use, is maintained and kept current.

CIS CSC v8.1: Control 1 Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets, and Safeguard 1.1 Establish and Maintain Detailed Enterprise Asset Inventory

PRIMARY KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR (KPI)

The dashboard reports on this Primary KPI:

Numerator: Assets documented with all required fields in the system of record

Denominator: All discovered assets

The system of record used for the numerator is typically the configuration management database (CMDB). It can also be multiple CMDBs if the organization uses more than one. The “required fields” for assets can be configured and can be based on the organization’s cybersecurity policy.

The denominator will include, in addition to assets in the CMDB, all assets discovered from tools such as vulnerability scanners, infrastructure management solutions, endpoint protection and response, and others.

COLUMNS DISPLAYED ON THE DETAIL DASHBOARD

• Compliance Status - Is the asset in the CMDB and does it include all mandatory fields?

• Hostname, MAC, IMEI, and IP - Asset identifiers

• OS Name, OS Version - Asset Operating System

• Device Name, Device Type

• Authorization Status - Is the asset authorized to connect to the organization’s network? (Note: this column might be configured to display some other attribute based on your organization’s cybersecurity policy.)

• Inventory Source - CMDB or other source

• PCI Context – Is the asset documented in the CMDB as in scope for PCI DSS?

• Asset Deployment Date, Asset First Seen Date, Asset Last Seen Date - Asset lifecycle dates

• Owner Full Name, Owner Email Address, Owner Employee ID, Owner Job Title - Asset Owner information

• Manager Employee ID, Manager Full Name, Manager Email Address - Asset Owner's manager

• Executive VP, Senior VP, VP / Executive Director - Management chain for the Asset Owner

• Level 5, Level 6 - Additional levels of management for the Asset Owner

OCSF TABLES USED BY THIS DASHBOARD

• Device Inventory Info [5001]

• User Inventory Info [5003]