Best Practice of CIS Control 2: Inventory and Control of Software Assets

Develop a software inventory list: Establishing a comprehensive inventory of all software assets is a fundamental step in ensuring that your organization's assets are protected. By maintaining an up-to-date inventory, you can ensure that all software assets are appropriately managed and secured. This includes information on software type, version, license information, and other relevant data. It's important to regularly review and update this inventory, ideally on a monthly basis, to ensure that you have an accurate and complete view of your organization's software assets.

Regularly update software: Regularly updating software is a critical component of maintaining a secure environment. Implement automated tools to streamline this process and ensure that all software is patched and up-to-date with the latest security updates and patches. Regular software updates help to reduce vulnerabilities, improve performance, and ensure that all software is running as intended. Automated tools can be used to push out updates to endpoints, servers, and other network devices in a consistent and efficient manner.

Implement access controls: Implementing access controls is a key component of protecting your organization's software assets. Restrict who can install and modify software, and implement authentication and authorization controls to ensure that only authorized individuals can access and manage software assets. Implementing access controls helps to reduce the risk of unauthorized access or malicious activity, and can help to ensure that your organization's software assets are managed in a consistent and secure manner.

Monitor software usage: Regularly monitoring software usage is an important step in identifying any unauthorized or potentially malicious activity. Implement automated tools to alert security teams of any unusual activity. By monitoring software usage, you can quickly identify any potential threats and take appropriate action to mitigate them. Automated tools can be used to generate alerts when software usage patterns deviate from expected norms, allowing security teams to respond quickly to any potential threats.

Implement a software asset management program: Establishing a formal program to manage software assets is a critical component of maintaining a secure and compliant environment. This includes policies and procedures for the acquisition, deployment, and retirement of software, as well as processes for license management and compliance. By implementing a software asset management program, you can ensure that software assets are managed in a consistent and effective manner. This helps to reduce the risk of non-compliance, ensure that all software is properly licensed, and provide a framework for managing software assets across the organization.

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