Light Touch or Full Process?

About this interactive

The Asset Management lesson says two factors decide how much effort an asset gets, from how carefully it is bought to how closely it is managed and how it is disposed of. The first is value or cost. A service at about $10 a month can simply be tried out. Something that costs thousands or tens of thousands deserves research and evaluation to make sure it meets the need and is managed correctly. The second is the sensitivity of the data stored on it. If the data is public or unclassified, there is less to worry about. As the data gets more sensitive, such as confidential records or personal details, the asset needs much more care to keep it secure. The lesson says to classify the asset by the data stored on it. Either factor on its own is enough. An expensive platform that holds only public content still gets the full process because of what it costs. A cheap app still gets the full process if it will hold payroll or health details, because of the data. Only an asset that is both cheap and holds nothing sensitive gets the light touch. A quick test for each card: is it costly, or will it hold sensitive data? If either answer is yes, it gets the full process.

What you'll learn

Decide how much care an asset needs from the two factors the lesson weighs: what it costs and how sensitive the data it holds is
Recognize that a cheap asset holding sensitive data still needs the full process, just as an expensive one does

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

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

NIST CSF

ID.AM-05 Assets are prioritized based on classification, criticality, resources, and impact on the mission.

Key terms

Asset Value: The monetary worth assigned to an asset, which may decrease over time through depreciation.
Data Classification: The process of organizing and labeling data based on its sensitivity or confidentiality level to inform access and handling policies.
Asset: Any resource of value to an organization, including hardware, software, data, and personnel.
Software as a Service: A cloud service model that delivers software applications over the internet on a subscription basis.

Topics

Asset Management Data Classification Interactive Streak Sort

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