Why Asset Intelligence Is a Must-Have for Attack Surface Management

Securing a complex attack surface from an evolving threat landscape can feel like battling a multi-headed hydra. Each head represents a different threat — ransomware, attacks on critical infrastructure, supply chain risks, or even nation-state actors. And when your attack surface spans IT, OT, IoT, industrial, and medical devices across cloud and virtual environments, the risks pile up quickly. 

This is exactly where actionable insights come in. I recently discussed this with my colleague, Drew Senko, during a webinar on attack surface management. We call this type of insight “asset intelligence,” and it’s crucial for anyone managing a modern attack surface. 

You’ve probably heard a lot about “visibility” in cybersecurity. But let’s be real — visibility alone doesn’t solve your problems. In fact, it can create more headaches if all you’re getting are surface-level data points and endless alerts. For example, knowing the MAC and IP address of a device on your network doesn’t help much. What asset categories or profiles does this device fall under? How does this device relate to other assets in the network? You need deeper context to understand what really matters to your organization so you can prioritize and take action. 

In the next sections, we’ll explore why traditional solutions fall short, what “asset intelligence” truly means, the benefits it brings, and how you can start using it to take control of your attack surface. Keep reading to dive deeper into how this powerful approach can transform your security operations. 

Why traditional solutions fall short in managing complex attack surfaces

Just keeping track of your assets can be tricky, especially with unknown and unmanaged devices sneaking onto your network. Solutions like configuration management databases (CMDBs), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and vulnerability management tools are helpful, but they leave gaps. 

Sure, most IT assets — like workstations and servers — are known and managed. But OT and IoT devices? That’s a different story. These might appear on your network, but since they often can’t install software agents, they end up unmanaged. And don’t forget rogue devices and shadow IT, which, by definition, are unknown and unmanaged. 

Maintaining visibility and control over all assets is critical — not just for compliance, but also for passing internal and external audits. Businesses are often required to demonstrate how assets are managed across their entire lifecycle, from discovery and visibility to patching, commissioning, and decommissioning. 

Static, outdated, incomplete asset data 

A big part of the problem is that many organizations still rely on spreadsheets or CMDBs to manage their asset inventory. CMDBs offer more structure than spreadsheets, but they are often incomplete, outdated, and prone to errors due to manual data entry. This incomplete picture of your assets makes it difficult to rely on for security or compliance purposes.

Lack of visibility into agentless devices

Organizations use tools like EDR and mobile device management (MDM) to manage and protect their assets. But here’s the issue — these tools only cover devices that can install agents. IoT, OT, medical devices, and industrial equipment? They’re frequently left out. You simply can’t rely on your IT and security tools alone to see the full picture.  

Missing profile and context information

Some organizations turn to vulnerability scanners to gain more visibility. These scanners might discover more devices on your network, but if those devices can’t run an agent, you’re left with minimal information — typically just an IP or MAC address. This gives you some context, but you’re left with more questions than answers. 

Alert fatigue and analysis paralysis 

Most organizations end up using a mix of CMDBs, EDRs, MDMs, and vulnerability scanners to get a handle on their assets. But even with all these tools, you still have to log into multiple systems to pull together a fragmented view of your network. The result? You’re overwhelmed with alerts but lack the context to prioritize them. Worse, you’re still missing critical insights into those unmanaged IoT, OT, and other agentless devices.  

What is asset intelligence and why it’s critical for attack surface management

Asset intelligence unifies fragmented data across diverse environments to help you reduce your attack surface with risk-based insights, not just raw data points. It provides comprehensive visibility into all your devices — whether IT, OT, IoT, industrial machines, medical devices, or other non-traditional IT assets — so you have a centralized view of where your risks are. 

But it’s more than just visibility. Asset intelligence offers actionable insights into your most vulnerable devices, communicates risks to stakeholders and other security tools, and helps you prioritize remediation workflows based on business context and risk scoring. In short, asset intelligence gives you clarity to make smarter security decisions. 

3 Key questions to ask about your attack surface management 

When assessing your attack surface management operations and tools, ask yourself these three critical questions: 

• Can you track all assets, including agentless devices? Can your current tools discover and track all devices, including agentless ones like OT and IoT devices? Many of these devices can’t run traditional security agents, so you need a solution that monitors their risks without relying on agents. 

• Can you precisely identify and classify all assets? Are you getting more than just an IP or MAC address? Effective asset intelligence provides detailed data on device types, installed software, and key risk indicators, giving you a full picture of your assets. 

• Do you understand the business impact of each asset? Are you able to map device risks to your organization’s specific operational context? Knowing a device is vulnerable is one thing, but understanding asset criticality, asset relationships and network connectivity factors allows you to prioritize and act on what matters most

Key benefits of asset intelligence for IT and security teams 

Asset intelligence offers a range of benefits that elevate security operations — from streamlining asset management and identifying security gaps, to prioritizing vulnerabilities and accelerating incident response. Asset intelligence also plays a critical role in ensuring compliance reporting. 

You’ve probably heard the phrase “you can’t protect what you don’t know exists.” It’s repeated so often in cybersecurity because it’s absolutely true. Asset intelligence empowers organizations to inventory unknown and unmanaged devices, reconcile their CMDB, identify asset ownership, and even report on the software bill of materials (SBOM), giving you a complete view of your environment. 

With the depth of information asset intelligence provides, you’ll be able to do much more—whether it’s enhancing IT asset records, assessing risks, or ensuring alignment with compliance frameworks like NIST through detailed reporting. 

Identify and close security gaps

Asset intelligence provides deep visibility, enabling you to discover critical security gaps across your environment. It helps you identify endpoints missing key security controls, ensures your security tools — like endpoint agents — are properly deployed, and spots devices that may be non-compliant. By closing these gaps, you reduce your overall attack surface and strengthen your security posture. Whether it’s ensuring proper agent deployment or finding devices that need immediate attention, asset intelligence equips you to act before risks become threats.

Prioritize and take actions on vulnerabilities 

Vulnerability management can feel never-ending, especially with 29,000 CVEs published in 2023 alone. But not every high-severity CVE is a top priority for your organization. 

Asset intelligence helps you cut through the noise by discovering vulnerable devices and applying business context to prioritize what actually matters. This risk-based approach to scoring ensures that your vulnerability management efforts are focused on the most important threats, helping you stay compliant with key programs. 

Accelerate incident response 

When a security incident occurs, speed is everything. Asset intelligence accelerates incident response by providing real-time context on vulnerable devices, users, and even the communication between those devices. This helps minimize mean-time-to-remediation (MTTR), a critical security performance metric. Plus, efficient incident response is often a requirement for regulatory compliance frameworks, making asset intelligence invaluable for staying compliant. 

Cover your assets: How asset intelligence strengthens compliance and reduces risk 

As threats continue to increase in volume and sophistication, minimizing your attack surface has never been more critical. Unfortunately, manual processes and outdated solutions can’t keep up with the growing scale and complexity of today’s IT, OT, and IoT environments. 

By grounding your attack surface management efforts in asset intelligence, you can cut through the noise and take action quickly. With actionable insights at your fingertips, you can reduce your organization’s risk exposure and stay compliant with regulatory demands.   

Want to learn more? Check out the e-book Winning At Attack Surface Management: 3 Reasons You Can’t Live Without Asset Intelligence for practical steps and real-world use cases that show how asset intelligence can transform your security operations. 

 

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