Knowledge / Cybersecurity Asset Management

What is Cybersecurity Asset Management (CAM)?

Cybersecurity teams cannot protect what they don't know exists. Cybersecurity Asset Management (CAM) provides a comprehensive inventory of all assets—both traditional and cloud-based—enabling real-time visibility, risk-based prioritization, and proactive security measures.

By ensuring organizations can identify, manage, and protect their most valuable resources, CAM serves as the foundation of a strong cybersecurity strategy.

Why CAM is Essential for Modern Cybersecurity

Today’s IT environments are more complex than ever, spanning on-premises infrastructure, cloud services, and third-party integrations. Without effective asset management, security teams lack visibility and control over their assets, creating exploitable gaps for attackers.

CAM plays a critical role in modern cybersecurity by ensuring organizations can identify, track, and secure every asset within their environment—whether on-premises, in the cloud, or across hybrid infrastructures.

CIS Critical Security Controls

The CIS Critical Security Controls (CIS CSC) framework, emphasizes asset inventory and management as a foundational security measure. The first two controls—Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets (CIS Control 1) and Inventory and Control of Software Assets (CIS Control 2)—prioritize asset visibility, making CAM essential for compliance and risk mitigation.

Complete Attack Surface Visibility and Asset Management

Modern enterprises operate in a complex, hybrid IT environment with on-premises, cloud, and remote assets. Without a centralized asset inventory, organizations lack awareness of what needs protection, making it easier for cybercriminals to exploit unknown or unmonitored endpoints.

CAM provides a real-time, accurate inventory of all devices, users, and applications, allowing security teams to track and protect critical assets, including:

Physical assets (servers, endpoints, networking equipment)
Software assets (applications, operating systems)
Cloud resources (PaaS and IaaS services, virtual machines, containers)

Risk Prioritization and Proactive Defense

Not all assets carry the same level of risk. CAM helps security teams prioritize vulnerabilities by assessing which assets are critical to business operations and most likely to be targeted by attackers.

By integrating Threat & Vulnerability Management (TVM) solutions, organizations can focus remediation efforts on actively exploited vulnerabilities, reducing exposure before an attack occurs.

Strengthened Compliance and Regulatory Adherence

Industries such as finance, healthcare, and government face strict compliance regulations (e.g.,
NIST, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS). Many mandates require organizations to maintain an up-to-
date inventory of IT assets and enforce strict security controls. Without proper asset
management, companies risk compliance violations, leading to hefty fines and reputational
damage.

Enhanced Incident Response and Threat Containment

When responding to a cyber incident, time is critical. Without an updated asset inventory, security teams struggle to identify affected systems, isolate threats, and contain breaches efficiently.

CAM accelerates incident response by mapping vulnerabilities to assets, tracking endpoint behaviors, and integrating with Security Operations Center (SOC) workflows for faster threat mitigation.

Strengthening Security: CAM as a Complementary Measure

While CAM plays a crucial role in inventorying cloud assets, it is most effective when integrated
into a layered security strategy. CAM works alongside Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions to provide comprehensive protection:

By combining CAM, CASB, and EDR, organizations create a robust defense-in-depth strategy—ensuring not only that they have visibility into all cloud assets but also that they can actively monitor, detect, and respond to threats as they emerge.

CAM continuously monitors and catalogs all cloud assets, ensuring nothing goes unnoticed.
CASB enforces security policies, monitors data flows, and prevents unauthorized access to cloud applications.
EDR detects and responds to real-time threats at the endpoint level, identifying suspicious activities and potential breaches.

The Risks of Poor Asset Visibility and Management

Without a clear and continuous understanding of IT assets—including endpoints, cloud resources, software, and privileged accounts—organizations are left vulnerable to cyberattacks, data breaches, compliance violations and financial losses.

Increased Risk of Ransomware and Data Breaches

Without a centralized inventory of IT assets, organizations struggle to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in a timely manner. Attackers exploit these blind spots, targeting outdated systems and misconfigured cloud resources. Poor asset management delays incident response, allowing threats to escalate.

Compliance Violations and Financial Penalties

Many regulations—such as GDPR, HIPAA, NIST, and PCI-DSS—require organizations to maintain a complete and accurate asset inventory. Failure to track IT assets can result in non- compliance, fines, and legal repercussions.

Shadow IT and Unauthorized Access Risks

Employees often introduce unauthorized applications, cloud services, and personal devices without IT oversight, creating security gaps. This unmanaged technology—known as Shadow IT—can lead to data leaks, misconfigurations, and compliance violations.

This includes any applications or services used by employees without IT approval, such as SaaS platforms, cloud storage, and third-party collaboration tools. Because these assets operate outside official security controls, they increase an organization’s risk exposure.

CAM focuses on visibility into officially managed assets but is not the primary tool for detecting Shadow IT. Instead, organizations rely on Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) and Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) solutions to monitor web usage and SaaS platform activity.

Poor Incident Response and Business Disruptions

When a cyberattack occurs, security teams must quickly identify and isolate affected assets to contain the damage. Poor asset visibility leads to delayed response times, prolonged downtime, and increased financial losses. Without a real-time inventory, organizations struggle to pinpoint which devices, users, and applications are compromised.

Overlapping Costs and Wasted Resources

Organizations often overspend on redundant tools and unused software licenses due to poor asset tracking. Without proper asset lifecycle management, businesses fail to decommission outdated systems, leading to higher operational costs and unnecessary security risks.

Cloud Asset Management

As organizations increasingly shift to the cloud, maintaining visibility and control over cloud- based assets has never been more important. The dynamic nature of cloud environments—where virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions are rapidly created, modified, or abandoned—introduces significant security risks.

Misconfigured cloud services, orphaned instances, and shadow IT assets can become easy targets for attackers if left unchecked. A CAM strategy ensures organizations maintain full visibility across their cloud environments, enabling them to:

Identify and track all cloud assets, including ephemeral workloads and API connections.
Detect and remediate misconfigurations before they become security vulnerabilities.
Reduce the risk of unmonitored or abandoned cloud instances being exploited.

By implementing CAM, organizations can enforce proper security controls across their cloud infrastructure, ensuring compliance and reducing exposure to cyber threats.

CAM and Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)

Modern organizations rely heavily on third-party software, cloud services, and open-source libraries to streamline operations and drive innovation. However, this reliance also introduces significant security risks. Third-party applications can serve as entry points for cyber threats, particularly when organizations lack full visibility into their external dependencies.

Without a CAM framework, identifying and monitoring third-party assets becomes a daunting challenge, leaving businesses vulnerable to hidden security gaps. A robust CAM strategy enhances Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) by:

Providing real-time visibility into all third-party software and services within an organization’s environment.
Continuously tracking software components, including open-source dependencies, to detect outdated or vulnerable versions.
Enabling faster threat response by immediately identifying affected assets when new vulnerabilities emerge.

The Log4j Vulnerability: A CAM Use Case

One of the most notable examples of third-party risk exposure was the Log4j vulnerability (CVE- 2021-44228), which impacted thousands of businesses worldwide. The flaw, found in the widely used Apache Log4j logging library, allowed attackers to execute remote code on affected systems. Organizations with effective CAM processes were able to:

Instantly identify systems running vulnerable versions of Log4j across their IT landscape.
Prioritize and deploy patches or mitigations swiftly, reducing the risk of exploitation.
Continuously monitor their environment for any indicators of compromise (IoCs) related to the vulnerability.

In contrast, organizations lacking real-time asset visibility faced significant delays in identifying their exposure, allowing attackers more time to exploit the flaw. These delays led to disruptions, data breaches, and costly incident response efforts that could have been mitigated with a proactive CAM approach.

By integrating Continuous Asset Management into their Third-Party Risk Management strategy, organizations can dramatically reduce their attack surface, ensuring they can respond to future vulnerabilities with speed and precision.

The Expanding Attack Surface: Cloud, Remote Work, IoT, and Third-Party Risks

As organizations rapidly adopt cloud computing, remote work, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and third-party integrations, their attack surface expands—creating more entry points for cyber threats. Without proper visibility and security controls, this increased complexity leads to higher risks of cyberattacks, data breaches, and compliance violations.

Cloud Security Challenges

The shift to multi-cloud and hybrid environments introduces new risks, as organizations struggle to maintain consistent security policies across platforms like Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.

Unsecured cloud workloads: Misconfigurations in cloud environments account for over 80% of cloud data breaches.
Shadow IT in the cloud: Employees frequently use unauthorized SaaS applications, leading to data leaks and compliance risks.
Mitigation: Implement Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) to continuously monitor for misconfigurations and enforce security policies.

Remote Work & Endpoint Security Gaps

With hybrid and remote workforces now the norm, organizations must secure personal devices, home networks, and unmanaged endpoints that connect to corporate environments.

Increased phishing attacks: 83% of organizations experienced email-based cyberattacks targeting remote workers.
Unpatched endpoints: Many employees fail to update or patch personal devices, leaving them vulnerable to exploits.
Mitigation: Deploy Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions, enforce Zero Trust security, and mandate regular security training for employees.

IoT & OT Vulnerabilities

From smart devices to industrial control systems (ICS), IoT and operational technology (OT) devices introduce new, often unprotected attack vectors.

Expanding entry points: The number of connected IoT devices is projected to reach 75 billion by 2025, many of which lack built-in security.
Lack of visibility: Organizations struggle to track, manage, and secure IoT devices, leading to blind spots in security strategies.
Mitigation: Implement Network Access Control (NAC) solutions and segment IoT networks to isolate high-risk devices from critical business operations.

The Business Impact of Strong CAM Implementation

A well-structured CAM strategy is more than just an IT requirement—it directly influences an organization’s security resilience, operational efficiency, and financial stability. Without clear visibility and control over IT assets, organizations face increased cyber risks, compliance violations, and unnecessary costs. Below are the key business benefits of implementing a strong CAM framework.

Reduced cyber risk and stronger security posture – Without CAM, organizations operate with unknown or unprotected assets, creating gaps that cybercriminals can exploit. A strong CAM strategy ensures real-time visibility into all endpoints, cloud workloads, and applications, reducing attack surface exposure.
Compliance and regulatory adherence – Many industries must comply with strict security regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, NIST, and PCI-DSS, which mandate accurate asset inventories and security controls. A strong CAM framework automates compliance tracking, audit readiness, and policy enforcement.
Optimized IT spending and cost savings – Inefficient asset management leads to overspending on unused software, redundant security tools, and unnecessary hardware replacements. CAM ensures organizations track asset utilization, eliminating waste and optimizing IT budgets.
Faster incident response and business continuity – When a cyber incident occurs, security teams must quickly identify, isolate, and mitigate threats. Strong CAM implementation enables faster forensic investigation, targeted containment, and minimal disruption.
Improved IT and security team efficiency – Manually tracking IT assets wastes valuable time and increases the likelihood of human error. Automating asset discovery, vulnerability assessments, and lifecycle management enhances IT team productivity and enables security teams to focus on strategic risk reduction.

How Does CAM Fit into the CTEM Framework

CAM is a foundational component of Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), ensuring organizations have full visibility into their IT environment, enabling effective risk management and threat mitigation. By integrating CAM into CTEM, organizations can proactively reduce risk, improve security resilience, and strengthen their overall cybersecurity posture.

Asset Management as a Service (AMaaS): Ascent’s Approach to Cybersecurity Asset Management

In modern cybersecurity, you can’t protect what you don’t know exists. Cybersecurity Asset
Management is no longer optional—it is an essential pillar of a resilient security strategy. By
maintaining continuous visibility, enforcing compliance, detecting shadow IT, and enhancing
threat response, organizations can reduce their attack surface and proactively defend against
evolving cyber threats.

Want to strengthen your asset security? Learn how Ascent’s Asset Management as a Service (AMaaS) can provide real-time visibility and risk-based prioritization for your cybersecurity needs. Contact us today!