From Invincible to Visible: Automating Cyber Security Asset Discovery!

You Can’t Protect What You Don’t See

An essential domain of Cyber Security is asset discovery, which is the process of identifying and classifying all IT infrastructure assets. This helps to ensure compliance with laws and regulations like HIPAA and GDPR.

It entails compiling an exhaustive list of all IT resources, such as hardware, software, applications, and databanks. With this comprehensive view of its IT landscape, it can protect organizational assets by serving as the cornerstone of an all-encompassing defence system that makes security activities like risk assessment, vulnerability management, and incident response easier.

The More Assets, The Bigger the Blind Spot

Managing a complex IT environment is like trying to find your way around a large city without a map. Similarly, manual asset discovery processes are time-consuming, prone to errors and frequently lead to inadequate inventories, which are made worse by the widespread use of “Shadow IT”.

Maintaining an accurate asset inventory is further complicated by the dynamic nature of IT infrastructures, including cloud resources, which are noticeable in environments that have continual additions, deletions, and configuration changes.

Businesses find it difficult to obtain complete visibility because of these issues, which reduces the efficacy of their Cyber Security efforts.

Time Saved on Discovery Is Time Spent on Protection

How Does Real-Time Visibility Empower Proactive Security?

By facilitating real-time access into the IT ecosystem, “Automated Asset Discovery” (AAD) empowers enterprises to proactively detect and address potential vulnerabilities. Research indicates that companies that have real-time visibility are 30–50% less vulnerable to effective cyberattacks.

These systems offer prompt notifications of any unwanted alterations or new devices by continuously monitoring the network. This gives enterprises the ability to take a proactive approach to security, allowing them to spot vulnerabilities early on and fix them before they are taken advantage of.

Best Practices for Automation

Define Discovery Scope: Clearly outline the assets you intend to discover (e.g., laptops, servers, IoT devices).
Leverage Agent-based and Agentless Techniques: Combine agent-based tools for detailed information with agentless techniques for comprehensive network visibility.
Schedule Regular Scans: Automate scans to maintain an up-to-date asset inventory.
Standardize Asset Naming Conventions: Ensure consistency for easier identification and management.
Integrate with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems: By integrating asset data with SIEM systems, organizations can correlate security events with specific assets, enabling faster incident response. For instance, in the event of a data breach, security teams can quickly identify the affected assets and take targeted remedial actions.

The Bigger the Attack Surface, The Bigger the Risk

Risks and Challenges of Automated Asset Discovery

False Positives and Negatives: Inaccurate data can be produced by AAD technologies, especially ones that depend on network scans. Blind spots in the security posture are caused by misidentified devices (false positives) and unreported assets (false negatives).

Over-reliance on Automation: Relying solely on AAD may cause people to become complacent with manual security procedures. This leads to a situation where vulnerabilities that automation ignored remain undetected.

Increased Attack Surface: Unintentionally exposing previously unknown assets to possible attackers is a risk associated with AAD. There is a need for more security measures due to this increased attack surface.

Mitigating the Risks

Fortunately, the security issues related to AAD can be greatly diminished with a well-defined risk mitigation approach. Here are some crucial things to remember:

Verification & Validation: Incorporating manual verification procedures in addition to AAD enhances the precision of assets that are found. By doing this, there is a lower chance of false positives and negatives.
Segmentation and Prioritization: Targeted security measures can be implemented by first segmenting the network and then prioritizing the most valuable assets. This guarantees the best possible protection for critical systems.
Constant Monitoring: Security professionals need to keep an eye out for questionable activity and unapproved devices on the network. By taking a proactive stance, possible threats are identified and dealt with before they become more serious.
Backup and Recovery: Make sure that regular backups of the data gathered by the automated asset discovery tools are made, and that recovery procedures are in place to mitigate the impact of data breaches or system failures.

Recap

Here is a summary of the main points.

All IT components are identified through asset discovery (devices, software, data)
With Automated Asset Discovery (AAD), you can see changes in IT in real time.
The risks associated with AAD include increased attack surface, over-reliance on automation, and false positives and negatives.
Verification, segmentation, ongoing monitoring, and robust backups are all components of mitigation techniques.

Effective asset discovery not only strengthens Cyber Security   measures but also ensures compliance with regulatory standards, safeguarding organizational resources against potential threats.

How Can ITM Help You?

IT Minister covers all aspects of Cyber Security including but not limited to Home cyber Security Managed Solutions to automated, Manage Threat Intelligence, Digital Forensic Investigations, Penetration Testing, Mobile Device Management, Cloud Security Best Practice & Secure Architecture by Design and Cyber Security Training. Our objective is to support organisations and consumers at every step of their cyber maturity journey. Contact Us for more information.

A Beginner’s Guide to Cyber Security Asset Discovery