CSAM (Cyber Security Asset Management)

Corporate infrastructures are becoming increasingly complex. With hybrid work models, cloud migrations, and the rapid expansion of IoT/OT ecosystems, the number of assets within organizations continues to grow exponentially. One of the most critical challenges is that most organizations do not have full visibility into 100% of their technological assets. This lack of visibility leads to Shadow IT practices, unpatched systems, endpoints operating without EDR coverage, unknown devices, incomplete inventory records, and ultimately poor security decisions. As a result, the attack surface expands, and risk becomes nearly impossible to manage. Today, threat actors often gain their initial foothold through an overlooked or unidentified asset.

Cybersecurity Asset Management (CSAM) is the process of discovering, inventorying, monitoring, and managing all hardware and software assets within an organization. In doing so, it eliminates the long-standing challenge of “you cannot protect what you cannot see.” This process involves identifying the functions of each asset, detecting gaps in existing security controls, and automatically remediating those gaps. As a result, risks are reduced, vulnerabilities are mitigated more effectively, and the overall security posture becomes significantly stronger.

What Do Assets Include?

Traditional Endpoints: Desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices.

Cloud Infrastructure: Cloud service providers, servers, and storage resources.

IoT Sensors: Internet of Things (IoT) devices and data-collection sensors.

Virtual and Physical Devices: Virtual machines and hardware devices.

Operating Systems: Various operating systems in use (Windows, Linux, macOS, etc.).

Operational Technology (OT): Industrial equipment, data acquisition systems, PLCs, and HMIs.

End Users: Devices and systems used by employees and other end users.

Physical Infrastructure: Office buildings, data centers, and infrastructure equipment.

What Are the Core Components of Cybersecurity Asset Management?

Asset Identification: Detecting and recording assets that may pose risks or create security vulnerabilities.

Classification: Prioritizing all organizational assets based on their operational importance and level of vulnerability.

Continuous Assessment: Maintaining an ongoing record of all asset changes.

Risk Assessment: Evaluating all potential risks and identifying the weaknesses associated with each asset.

Administrative Control Management: Preventing unauthorized access and ensuring that each user can access only the files, data, and applications they are authorized to use.

Patch and Update Maintenance: Regularly tracking software updates and patches across network and cloud systems.

Mitigation and Improvement: Designing your asset management strategy to proactively address all potential attack scenarios and configuring it to maximize your ability to respond quickly and effectively in the event of a security breach.

Compliance Management: Ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements.

What Are the Benefits for Your Organization?

Continuous monitoring of your organization’s security posture, combined with the rapid discovery of all assets across the network, enables the identification of vulnerabilities and significantly reduces the attack surface. Security evaluations are performed at the application and service layers, and the effectiveness of active security tools is assessed to ensure that the most efficient technologies are deployed strategically. As a result, true operational needs become visible, allowing the organization to make accurate and impactful security investments. In addition, the automated discovery and continuous updating of assets greatly enhances operational efficiency; the burden of manually maintaining asset inventories is eliminated, and teams can redirect their time and focus toward more critical processes.

In conclusion, cybersecurity is not only about detecting threats but also about controlling the invisible assets that enable those threats to emerge. With CSAM, organizations can uncover unknown assets, instantly visualize their associated risks, prioritize the vulnerabilities that need to be addressed, and manage all assets under a single, unified framework. When unknown assets are eliminated, unmanaged risk disappears as well.