Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets
Actively manage (inventory, track, and correct) all enterprise assets (end-user devices, including portable and mobile; network devices; non-computing/Internet of Things (IoT) devices; and servers) connected to the infrastructure physically, virtually, remotely, and those within cloud environments, to accurately know the totality of assets that need to be monitored and protected within the enterprise. This will also support identifying unauthorized and unmanaged assets to remove or remediate.
Program Services & Resources
Why is Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets Important?
Effective security begins with knowing and managing all PSU assets. Proper asset management supports security monitoring, incident response, backups, and identifying where critical data resides to apply appropriate protections. Attackers scan networks—on-premises and in the cloud—for unpatched or misconfigured assets. Internally, unidentified or temporary systems (like test or guest devices) can introduce vulnerabilities. While tracking assets in complex, fast-changing environments—including mobile devices, virtual machines, and cloud instances—is challenging, attackers are persistent and capable of exploiting unmanaged assets. Comprehensive asset inventories are also essential during incident response to trace threats and assess the impact across similar systems.
What can you do?
This CIS Control emphasizes both technical and procedural steps to manage the full life cycle of enterprise assets and their associated data. It includes assigning ownership responsibility and integrating asset management with business processes. Enterprises, regardless of size, can use various tools to track assets—ranging from large IT inventory systems to spreadsheets populated via network scans, logs, and existing security tools.
Because assets aren’t always provisioned through IT, a single, accurate source of truth is rare. Instead, organizations must “crowd-source” data from multiple sources such as Active Directory, VPN, MFA, MDM, IDS, cloud portals, and vulnerability scanners. Regular active scanning and data normalization help identify and maintain a reliable and current inventory of all enterprise-connected devices.
Specific details and procedures are outlined in the K-12 Cybersecurity CORE Safeguards.
**NC K-12 Cybersecurity Community Mailing list subscription is required to access the CORE Safeguard materials**