What is ITAM?
IT asset management (ITAM) is a set of business practices that manage and optimize an organization's technology assets throughout their lifecycles – including hardware, software, networks, and connected devices. ITAM’s goal is to facilitate operational efficiency, improve financial performance, manage risk, and ensure compliance.
How ITAM strengthens your cybersecurity
Incident
response
Quickly identify and locate devices and their owners, facilitating visibility, swift responses, and root cause analysis.
Risk
mitigation
Reduce threats and security risks stemming from rogue, obsolete, or misconfigured assets.
IT system roles
Associate and map in-use software to avoid application and purchase redundancy and maintain licensing compliance.
Software management
Identify legacy software versions, unpatched software, and other vulnerabilities that can pose a security risk.
Hardware
management
Confirm network-connected devices are compliant and properly configured. Identify obsolete, stolen, or lost assets.
IT asset prioritization
Categorize and prioritize IT assets by operational functionalities, criticality, and sensitivity to ensure your incident response minimizes organizational risk and damage.
Security controls
Track changes in your IT landscape and protect assets and their operational functionalities by mapping IT networks and identifying security controls.
8 steps for improving cybersecurity with ITAM
Step 1
Identify all the IT assets within your organization, including end-user devices, servers, software applications, and network systems.
1
Asset identification
Step 2
Categorize the identified assets based on their type, owner, location, and criticality to your organization.
2
Asset classifaction
Step 3
Analyze the assets for any known vulnerabilities, through either automated vulnerability scanners or manual checks.
3
Vulnerability identification
Step 4
Assess the impact and likelihood of the identified vulnerabilities being exploited. Prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk.
4
Risk assessment
Step 5
5
Mitigate the vulnerabilities either by patching, changing configurations, or compensating controls.
Remediation
Step 6
6
Verification
Verify the effectiveness of your remediation steps and reassess the risk.
Step 7
Continually manage the assets throughout their lifecycle from procurement and usage to maintenance and disposal.
7
Lifecycle management
Step 8
8
Continuous monitoring
Verify the effectiveness of your remediation steps and reassess the risk.
Cyberattacks are more dangerous and more common than ever.
Top 5 possible outcomes of a cyberattack:
Loss of critical operating data
Loss of revenue
Loss of IP
Erosion of customer trust
Reputational damage
IT leaders report surging data security threats:
90%
faced significant data security and governance challenges
38%
experienced a security
breach in 2021
20%
predict an increase in the volume or complexity of attacks
Source:
Top Global Data Security Trends Report. SalesForce.
Conclusion
Implementing an effective ITAM system is crucial for any organization's overall cybersecurity strategy, enabling proactive security measures, reducing your attack surface, and enhancing incident response capabilities.
With a robust ITAM strategy in place, you can safeguard your valuable data, protect against cyberthreats, and maintain a strong defense posture in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Need help getting started?
SHI’s ITAM experts make it easy to identify the steps you need to take to improve your asset management processes.
Contact us to learn more.
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