Looking Back to the Future: Cloud Asset Management

This post is the last in a three-part series. In part one and part two, we discussed how the past obstacles of device management and IoT devices impact the cybersecurity challenges of today and tomorrow.

In this third and final post, we look at the challenges of cloud asset management and their effect on the cybersecurity challenges happening now and in the future.

Predicting the future is impossible. No one knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, next week, or next month.

(Heck, half the time I don’t even know what’s happening an hour from now. 😂)

One way to get a handle on future cybersecurity challenges? Start with asset management. Not only what cybersecurity asset management means today, but how the past got us to where we are.

The first step to the cloud

For years, Amazon had a common problem when it came to creating applications: building them faster.

To boost efficiencies and development, Amazon launched AWS in 2006. AWS transformed cloud computing, changing up how software is developed, deployed, and distributed today.

Even though CISOs and other leaders saw cost savings and other benefits with cloud computing, IT and security teams were reluctant to take a leap into the cloud. For IT and security teams, there were a bunch of challenges, like who owned the data and who’s responsible for securing it.

But factors like always-on, always-connected devices made it “a must” to migrate to the cloud. For C-suite leaders, the move to the cloud brought along cost savings, ease of deployment, and cost predictability.

The challenges of today’s cloud asset management

While migrating to the cloud may be a must today, this shift has brought along some distinct cloud asset management challenges for cybersecurity, like:

Inventorying dynamic devices with IP addresses that can change or come and go with a click of a button
Understanding the purpose, context, and subsequent security controls required
Prioritizing and addressing known vulnerabilities
Creating access errors is (unfortunately) easy with the highly configurable nature of the cloud
Complying with best practices for cloud computing
Developing the appropriate actions for alerting and other tasks

The future of cloud asset management

The evolution of cloud adoption can help IT and cybersecurity teams know what to anticipate now and down the line.

Everything about computing is subject to change. Where the data lives. How security controls are applied. What tools are in use. All this and more is continually in flux.

In today’s world, asset inventory is ongoing — and certainly not a one-time event. For an accurate asset inventory of everything from cloud assets, to SaaS apps, to devices and so much more, the discovery process must be constant.