Keeping control of your information system has never been so tricky. How can you list all the components of your information system, and present them in a way that's easy to read and understand? This is precisely where IT system mapping comes into play, as a strategic approach to better control your IT system, its ramifications and its vulnerabilities... and therefore better defend it.
Knowing your IS means having access to masses of data that are often scattered, difficult to read and rarely correlated. Not only do we need to centralize all this data, but above all we need to update, share and interpret it to gain complete visibility of our IS. Real-time 3D mapping is the answer to all these challenges.
Taking stock of your cyber assets: turning a headache into a reflex
Increasingly complex information systems
Today, all company activities are linked to the information system, which in turn generates an ever-increasing amount of data: networks, applications, physical equipment, users and administrators with their different levels of privilege, etc.
In the space of just a few years, information systems have become increasingly complex, with more and more layers and overlays. While the attack surface has become more extensive, it is also increasingly difficult to defend, due to the entanglement and interconnections between different digital assets, as well as with the outside world. For most companies and their system & network administrators, having an exhaustive, up-to-date view of their various cyber assets is at best a headache, at worst a mirage.
The benefits of IT system mapping for cybersecurity
And therein lies the rub. How can you properly defend your IS if you don't have an exhaustive, real-time view of the various assets that make it up? Knowing your IS is a prerequisite for implementing cyber hygiene measures. According to the ANSSI guide to information system mapping, "the development of an information system map [...] responds to four digital security challenges": control, protection, defense and resilience of the information system.
In concrete terms, this involves making an inventory of the various machines, applications, services, accesses and users that make up an IT system. The next step? Gathering this data and rendering it in a format that can be understood and read by all those involved in securing the IT system, as well as keeping the mapping up to date. The challenge is quite simply to simplify knowledge and understanding of the IT system for the various stakeholders.
Regain control of your information system with a 3D representation
Mapping and visualizing IT system entry points
To simplify matters, we can represent our IS as a city divided into several districts (a company's business units), with points of interest (the most critical servers), roads (data flows), an urban belt (firewalls) and inhabitants (users). While the benefits of IS mapping are gradually being recognized, not all companies are at the same level of maturity. Mapping all machines, applications, services, accesses and users is not yet a reflex. All the more so as these different elements are connected to each other and to the outside world. Some are even stored in the cloud.
Today, many different tools produce data: vulnerability scanners (networks, applications), log sinks, EDRs, etc. The task of collecting and centralizing existing data can be facilitated by the use of APIs. The task of collecting and centralizing existing data can be made easier by using APIs to bring data together in a single mapping tool.
Visualize your IS in 3D to better contextualize data
It's not enough to bring all this data together in a single tool; we also need to standardize this technical data, model it, standardize it and render it in a format that can be understood and read everywhere. In companies where data is collected, the inventory of different assets is often rendered in 2D, in the form of lists, KPIs, dashboards... with data that is too little contextualized and difficult to correlate. Most of today's 2D visions present large quantities of data, but do not allow them to be prioritized.
Defenders need to know how many assets they need to protect, but they also need to understand the links between machines and networks, which users have access to which machines, which vulnerabilities are most critical... all in a simple, visual format. The use of 3D mapping, updated in real time, is ideal for this purpose. Analysts need more depth and context to better understand the multi-dimensional (and often complex) relationships between different assets, and to prioritize actions to be taken, or even automate certain actions.
Simplify data access to prioritize decision-making
Visible data shared by all
One of the main stumbling blocks for IT teams today is access to IT system data. Different types of tools exist, but they rarely communicate with each other. What's more, each team has its own perception of the IT system, guided by its business and its use, but none of the players has a global view or even perception of a unified surface.
Using 3D mapping of their IS, RSO and SecOps teams can collect information in real time to prioritize actions to be taken to secure the IS. Access to contextualized data enables operational teams to prioritize remediation actions on different vulnerabilities. CIOs and CISOs can generate comprehensive reports and monitor action plans over time. This is the great advantage of multi-user tools: each user defines his or her own use and draws on the mass of available data to find what he or she needs.
Improving responsiveness in incident response
The use of 3D mapping makes it possible not only to identify vulnerabilities ahead of a crisis (by prioritizing day-to-day actions), but also to manage and respond to a potential cyber crisis much more quickly and efficiently. This saves time during the incident response phase. By knowing, for example, which route the attacker has taken within the IT system, thanks to an ergonomic and interactive view, palliative measures can be applied much more rapidly. Will we one day be able to pilot our IT system in front of a holographic table? It's not such a far-fetched idea.
Would you like to consolidate all your assets within a single, easy-to-read interface and regain control of your IS? Contact our teams.
