Critical Asset Security
Learn how to strengthen your cybersecurity strategies with an innovative approach.
Effective planning of cybersecurity measures is essential. At this point, the concept of security guides us.
Cyberattacks have shown us the importance of security in the digital realm and how easily we can lose our digital assets.
However, there are still managers in some sectors today who do not fully grasp the digital world or are confused about what actions to take. As a result, they avoid the situation, ignoring the need for action.
They act as if there is no asset to protect. But in reality, our digital assets are just as valuable as any others we have.
This is why it’s necessary to transform cybersecurity from mere words into actions.
Considering the question, “What happens if our data is stolen?”, can help increase awareness.
Possible answers include:
- Financial loss
- Loss of reputation
- Operations coming to a halt
- The collapse of companies we’ve worked years to build
Many companies, with this awareness, are making various investments and purchasing different products.
- But how accurate or effective are these investments and products?
- Could unnecessary funds have been spent on these investments?
- We’ve made numerous investments, but are we truly secure?
How do we answer these questions and similar ones? In other words, where do we start, and what is our current situation?
Crown Jewel Analysis
This method, developed by the MITRE Corporation, is a framework for understanding how to protect valuable assets. It is widely used in various fields, particularly effective in cybersecurity, guiding us in finding answers to the questions raised above.
In essence, it provides a roadmap for protecting our “crown jewels” and helps us see the bigger picture.
By using this method, we can answer questions like “Where do we start?” or “What is our current status?” The CJA demonstrates that we can reach conclusions by addressing three fundamental questions.
1.Identify Critical Assets
What do we have? What needs protection?
The first step is to list our assets, such as data, employees, systems, applications, or infrastructure.
2.Asses Asset Value
What is the value of our assets? What impact would their loss have?
The second step involves evaluating the worth of the identified assets-our “crown jewels.” This requires assessing the potential impact of losing them based on:
- Financial impact
- Operational impact
- Strategic importance
- Reputational loss
This assessment helps establish the true value of each asset.
3.Threat Modeling & Risk Assessment
How will we protect our valuable assets?
In the third and final step, we need to determine how to safeguard these assets. This step involves two stages:
- Identifying attack surfaces-where we might be vulnerable.
- Prioritizing which vulnerabilities need attention based on their risk level.
Answering this third question helps assess the effectiveness of our security measures and ensures our investments are strategically sound. Without the right perspective, we risk making poor investments and compromising cybersecurity.
How Can We Achieve This?
PentestBX, with its range of modules, simplifies all three steps of the Crown Jewel Analysis process for you.
Identify Critical Assets
Do you know how many clients, hardware devices, products, protocols, shared resources, and assets are present on your networks?
PentestBX, with its Network Topology and Network Share modules, enables you to easily locate and inventory all assets within your network.
Additionally, the Cyber Watch module will identify any external subdomains associated with your primary domain.
With these tools, you can effortlessly complete the first step of Crown Jewel Analysis.
Assess Asset Value
What are the values of my assets?
PentestBX simplifies the process of evaluating the assets you identified in the first step.
Which asset groups are more important to us, and which are truly critical-our “crown jewels”? Just as you wouldn’t store children’s toys in a safe while keeping your valuable jewelry in the living room, it’s essential to group and assign the appropriate value to each asset.
With PentestBX’s asset classification feature, you can create groups, assign values to them, and thereby identify your most valuable “crown jewels.”
Threat Modeling & Risk Assessment
How do we protect our assets?
After identifying our assets and assessing their value, the next step is to determine potential threats, identify our vulnerabilities, and establish which areas should be prioritized based on these weak points.
What attacks might you face?
To do this, we first need to map out our attack surfaces. PentestBX, with its various modules, can guide us in this area.
It provides insights on the geographic locations from which attacks are originating, highlights open services on our assets, and helps us understand vulnerabilities within those services.
Additionally, it identifies potential weaknesses in our websites and the types of attacks that could exploit them.
PentestBX also tracks newly disclosed vulnerabilities in our products by monitoring CVEs every 15 minutes, keeping us informed of potential risks.
For email security, PentestBX helps us identify vulnerabilities in anti-spam systems and reveals which types of malicious content may bypass email defenses.
Which to prioritize?
Once we’ve mapped our threat surfaces, the question arises: what should we prioritize? Here, PentestBX’s scoring system helps by suggesting priorities based on the value of your assets and the vulnerabilities found. It directs attention to the most critical areas.
