Who Answers for It? — TechKnowSurge

About this interactive

The Assignment and Accounting lesson is about ownership. Once an asset is bought, one of the best ways to manage it is to make somebody accountable for it. The lesson compares three cases with the same laptop. If it is assigned to you and only you use it, you will probably protect it: you will not leave it in a coffee shop or in view in your car. If it is assigned to your department and anyone in the team can take it, you will probably be somewhat careful, but less so. If it belongs to no one and is just lying around for anyone, it gets the least care of all. So the best way to keep an asset safe is to assign it directly to a specific person who feels it is their responsibility. The lesson says to do this especially for high-theft items: phones, tablets and laptops. In this set, a department pool counts as no single owner. A team can share it, but no one person answers for it. A quick test for each card: if it went missing tomorrow, is there one named person who would have to answer for it?

What you'll learn

Recognize whether an asset's setup gives it one person who answers for it, the ownership the lesson says makes people most careful
Tell assignment to a named person from a department pool or an asset assigned to no one

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

4.2 Explain the security implications of proper hardware, software, and data asset management.

NIST 800-53

CM-8 System Component Inventory

Key terms

Asset Assignment: The practice of formally assigning IT assets to a specific person or department to establish ownership and responsibility.
Accountability: The obligation of an individual or department to answer for the custody, use, and safekeeping of an assigned asset.
Asset: Any resource of value to an organization, including hardware, software, data, and personnel.
Asset Tag: A physical label affixed to IT equipment containing an identifier used to track and inventory organizational assets.

Topics

Asset Management Accountability Interactive Streak Sort

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