Manage vulnerabilities and reduce risks with CSAM

The need for comprehensive cybersecurity asset management (CSAM) solutions has never been greater in today’s digital world. As cyber threats continue to evolve, organizations of all sizes need to take a proactive approach to manage their IT vulnerabilities. 

Cybersecurity asset management tools provide a powerful way for organizations to identify, monitor, and secure their assets. By leveraging these tools, organizations can gain visibility into the security state of their assets and ensure the security configurations and compliance are up-to-date. 

Additionally, these tools enable organizations to quickly detect and respond to any threats or risks associated with their assets, including malware. Organizations can better protect themselves from malicious actors and data breaches through these solutions. With in-depth insights into their assets, organizations can make informed decisions about prioritizing security controls and protecting assets against emerging threats.

In this article, we will discuss the capabilities of a CSAM tool and how it can help with vulnerability and risk management in your IT infrastructure.

Why do you need CSAM to manage your vulnerabilities?

There are several reasons you should invest in a CSAM tool. Some of them include the following:

Ability to automate vulnerability assessments

A CSAM tool can automate the process of identifying, tracking, and managing vulnerable assets within your IT infrastructure. Automating this process eliminates manual error and ensures that all assets in your system are identified and tracked for potential vulnerabilities. 

It provides IT managers with an up-to-date view of their organization’s security posture. As a result, it allows them to respond quickly to any threats or vulnerabilities as they arise. 

Improved visibility into the asset security status

A CSAM tool also provides enhanced visibility into the security status of your organization’s assets. It makes it easier to identify risks or vulnerabilities quickly and accurately. 

With real-time reports on asset security status, IT managers can take action immediately if a risk or vulnerability is detected in their infrastructure. It helps ensure that you address any issues before they cause significant damage or disrupt operations. 

Increased efficiency of security operations

Finally, a CSAM tool can help increase the efficiency of security operations by providing detailed information on all assets in an IT infrastructure. It makes it easier for IT managers to monitor the security posture of their environment at all times and ensure that appropriate measures are taken if any threats or vulnerabilities arise. 

The increased efficiency also reduces costs related to security operations, as it eliminates unnecessary manual labor associated with traditional vulnerability assessments. 

Improved compliance with regulatory requirements

An effective cybersecurity asset management tool helps ensure compliance with industry regulations and standards such as:

• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
• Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX)
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

CSAM tools automatically monitor changes in the system and provide accurate reports on data points such as patch levels, system configuration changes, and user access levels. Using this data, you can ensure your organization complies with all applicable laws and regulations.

Key capabilities of CSAM for vulnerability management

You can use CSAM or IT asset management (ITAM) tools to manage all your IT vulnerabilities in one place. Here are a few key capabilities that can help you achieve that:

Aggregate data from different environments and monitor them in one place

CSAM tools can provide a consolidated view of the enterprise infrastructure by gathering data from multiple environments. These tools can ingest information from various sources, including connected IT asset management systems and third-party databases. 

This data is then compiled into a single dashboard, displaying all assets in the network across various layers and environments. In addition to providing real-time visibility into all assets, it can also identify new devices as they are connected and automatically scan them for vulnerabilities and policy violations. The interface allows users to view the full range of their assets with one glance, enabling more informed decision-making. 

These solutions offer powerful search capabilities that enable users to quickly find specific assets within the environment to take further action as needed. The combination of automated scanning and comprehensive oversight ensures that organizations have complete visibility into their network at all times.

For example, tools like Virima can scan your network and identify assets in various environments like cloud, edge devices, on-premise or hybrid infrastructure. Moreover, it feeds that data into a robust service map that allows you to visualize the asset environment and determine which services rely on which assets. Through such visibility, you can monitor your assets in real-time—and ensure that you stay on top of any potential threat.

Conduct assessments based on asset environment

These tools are invaluable for assessing the condition of assets, particularly in complex environments where security policies and standards are in place. They can provide granular detail on the current state of each asset and its role within the environment, allowing organizations to identify and address potential vulnerabilities quickly.

With support for a range of common frameworks, such as ISO 20000 and NIST 800-53, these tools can also help organizations ensure their assets remain aligned with external requirements or standards.

In addition, many CSAM tools feature integrations with existing network monitoring solutions to further enhance their capabilities. It allows organizations to gain visibility into all aspects of the environment that could be affected by changes in the status of any particular asset. By leveraging such advanced capabilities, organizations can better manage risk while remaining compliant with applicable regulations or guidelines.

Tools like Virima use the IT discovery data to check for known vulnerabilities. Based on that, it sends you vulnerability scan reports at your preferred frequency so that you can stay on alert in case any vulnerabilities do occur in your network. It ensures that you receive round-the-clock monitoring—which is essential today.

Integrates with security and other IT management vendors

CSAM tools are handy for businesses, allowing administrators to integrate existing IT and security management vendors quickly. This integration gives users the most up-to-date information on their systems and data, allowing them to address any possible issues before they become a problem proactively.

The integrations also allow administrators to use the security asset management tool as a bridge between multiple vendors, creating an easier way to manage all aspects of cybersecurity in one place. By integrating with existing vendors, businesses can save time by not having to switch back and forth between various consoles and be sure that their cyber assets are always up-to-date and secured.

Additionally, the integrations often come with features like automated alerts for vulnerabilities or service outages. It enables companies to act quickly upon any potential threats without wasting time gathering information from several sources.

For instance, Virima integrates with tools like:

• ServiceNow
• Ivanti
• Tufin
• Okta
• Ping
• National Vulnerability Database (NIST)
• Common Platform Enumeration (CPE)
• Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)

Using such integrations, you can manage threats and subsequent incident management capabilities within the same tool.

Use cases of cybersecurity asset management tools

Below we have listed a few use cases of CSAM in the context of vulnerability and risk management:

Prioritize vulnerability patching based on asset criticality

These tools are invaluable in helping organizations identify and prioritize their vulnerable assets. They can quickly scan a system or network to identify all the assets and associated vulnerabilities, allowing the organization to take proactive measures to reduce the risk of attack. They can also provide detailed information on the most critical and vulnerable systems, giving tech teams a clear roadmap for patching those systems before any others.

By assessing the business impact of each system, asset management tools can provide more insight into which problems need to be addressed with immediate attention rather than delaying them until a later date. 

Additionally, these tools can collect data from various sources, such as vulnerability assessments and regular device scans, enabling IT teams to quickly spot trends in the data and identify any new threats that have arisen during their monitoring period. 

Ultimately, they allow organizations to effectively identify vulnerable assets and prioritize them based on their business criticality—saving time, resources, and money.

Identify unscanned assets and implement continuous monitoring

CSAM provides a powerful and efficient way to identify vulnerable assets that have previously been overlooked. Through the use of analytics, these tools can quickly detect assets that need to be correctly configured or have never been scanned before. It enables organizations to avoid cyber threats by conducting scans and assessments on these assets.

Plus, with advanced scanning capabilities like extended IP address ranges or device-specific scans, it is possible to discover previously unknown and potentially vulnerable devices on a network.

Finally, by having the ability to categorize and prioritize any identified potential vulnerabilities, organizations can effectively address security issues before they become an issue. CSAM solutions are essential for ensuring comprehensive protection against malicious cyber attackers.

Integrates data from industry-specific databases to categorize and mitigate vulnerabilities

Ideally, CSAM tools are reliable and effective solutions for aggregating data from third-party security vendors to enrich their data. It allows organizations to get a comprehensive picture of their cyber security posture, identifies potential risks, prioritizes remediation efforts, and monitors their digital assets for threats. 

For example, it may collect information from Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) databases to determine the severity of a particular vulnerability. The organization can decide which vulnerabilities must be addressed by analyzing this data and the device or software’s criticality. Additionally, you can look for tools that integrate with databases like NIST, CPE, CVE, and more to identify threats based on current industry standards.

You can also implement additional measures like firewalls or control lists to mitigate the risk associated with identified vulnerabilities. CSAM also offers powerful collaboration capabilities that allow stakeholders—such as IT administrators, security teams, and senior executives—to communicate more effectively on cybersecurity incidents. 

With all this data collected at once and in one place, organizations have greater visibility into the security status of their systems, allowing them to take action proactively rather than reactively when it comes to cyber threats.

Uncover assets in different production environments

You can gain complete visibility into non-conventional assets like cloud-based applications and workloads used in DevOps. These solutions help enterprises identify and monitor differences between development, testing, and production environments that can lead to security issues in the live system.

By providing a detailed asset inventory of non-conventional assets, these tools can help organizations better understand the entire IT landscape over time. Plus, they can gain further insight into the types of data stored on said assets and identify potential risks arising from configuration discrepancies. 

Additionally, enterprise teams can use asset management tools to periodically review their IT landscape and ensure that assets are functioning correctly with any necessary updates or patches applied promptly. This helps secure corporate data while ensuring compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA or PCI DSS.

Manage your IT vulnerabilities with Virima

As you can see, utilizing a CSAM or ITAM tool is essential for an organization’s success in vulnerability management. Not only will it give you greater visibility into your environment and potential vulnerabilities, but it will also help to speed up patching cycles and reduce the chance of human error. 

For example, Virima’s ITAM tool integrates with security databases and can automate device scanning so that you know which assets are a part of your network. It also has features like service mapping that creates a dynamic and real-time visualization of all your assets—ensuring that you know what is going on in your network and which services are prone to any vulnerabilities. Interested in seeing what an ITAM tool can do to improve your cybersecurity capabilities? Book a demo with Virima for a personalized walk-through of our tool’s features.