Does Your Business Need To Upgrade To Asset Intelligence?

Business leaders crafted asset management policies to improve goal achievement. That laid the groundwork for next-gen asset intelligence cybersecurity.  

Companies continue to leverage wireless connectivity through remote workforces that have expanded their market footprint exponentially. Opportunities to enlist talented people outside your brick-and-mortar facility and have determined employees driving profits on the road allows businesses to challenge seemingly larger corporations with greater resources. Simply put, the growing use of endpoint connectivity is quickly leveling the playing field.

But with any innovation in the digital age, cybersecurity must meet the challenges that nefarious hackers present. That’s why an increasing number of CIOs are enlisting managed IT cybersecurity experts to elevate their asset intelligence to secure endpoint devices and business networks.

Asset Intelligence Propels Enhanced Endpoint Cybersecurity

Organizations that smartly shift to partial or fully remote workforces would be wise to recognize that determining endpoint cybersecurity remains a foundation for success. Even decision-makers who are strong advocates of shoring up endpoint devices may want to consider stepping back and taking a global look at the rising number of devices being used and how they are interconnected.

It’s not uncommon for organizations to roll out policies such as bring your device. That often leads to managing company-owned devices and those of employees piecemeal. While such practices may be expedient at the moment, they can play right into the hands of cybercriminals. A Forbes article highlights why less-than-secure endpoint devices are considered the low hanging fruit for hackers.

“Hackers recognize that the best way to carry out a cyberattack is to live on the endpoints. Endpoints are notorious for having major weak points: endpoints are known to be under-protected, versatile, and constantly linked to error-prone humans. These vulnerabilities increase a hacker’s success rate, and they target endpoints because of this,” Forbes states. “Although a hacker’s end-goal is to obtain more lucrative information, they know that this information is very controlled in well-defended servers; therefore, hackers always prey on the least secure devices, i.e., endpoints, and then escalate their privileges to access company servers.”

By elevating from the sometimes delayed breach response inherent in asset management plans to heightened intelligence, organizations are poised to defend and respond to threats. These are ways asset intelligence augments cybersecurity.

Trackable Endpoint Devices

It may not be surprising to know that everyday people tend to misplace or lose even expensive devices such as cell phones, tablets, and laptops. Remote team members sometimes often get turned around while working in a coffee shop or another location, only to leave devices behind. Asset management provides the constant connectivity to locate the device so your employee can circle back and retrieve it or contact the authorities in the event of a theft. That device may house sensitive data and saved login and password information to access company-wide systems.

Asset Intelligence Helps Devices Self-Heal

According to CPO Magazine, ransomware attacks occur every 14 seconds, public organizations are threatened by at least one malicious email in every 302, and half of all cyberattacks are leveled at small businesses. Those frightening statistics point to the fact that endpoint devices are going to be tested by hackers. A part of any asset intelligence strategy is to utilize information to defend against incursions and initiate autonomous healing if compromised.

Predict Malware Incursions

One of the interesting facets of asset intelligence is that the more devices and data that enjoy persistent endpoint connectivity, the better the ability to predict cyberattacks. This does not necessarily provide managed IT cybersecurity experts with a crystal ball. Instead, immediate data availability supports prompt malware identification, and autonomous responses such as blocking, among others. Heightened intelligence delivers real-time cybersecurity defense.

Asset Intelligence Improves Cybersecurity Compliance

When ongoing endpoint cybersecurity protections engage the entire network, necessary data for compliance audits is secured in real time. The totality of this critical data can be streamed directly into oversight dashboards and analyzed for reporting purposes. Businesses will no longer need to conduct cumbersome reviews and pull together data from individual sources because asset intelligence is hard at work automating. At the same time, you are focused on profit-driving endeavors.

There’s little doubt that a deftly implemented strategy can invigorate an organization on numerous fronts. One way of thinking about this IT strategy is that you would be upgrading from asset management to asset intelligence.