Significance of CMDB in Device Visibility To Control Unauthorized Access in Banks

Unauthorized access in an organization refers to the act of accessing or attempting to access a system, network, or resource without proper authorization or permission. This can include accessing confidential information, manipulating data, or using the system or network for unauthorized purposes. Unauthorized access is a serious threat to the security and privacy of individuals and organizations.

Unauthorized devices are devices not authorized by a network's owner or administrator, such as rogue access points, malicious bots, sniffers, or compromised personal devices. These devices can be used by attackers to steal sensitive data, disrupt operations, damage systems, or launch other attacks. Unauthorized access is a challenge that requires constant vigilance and proactive action.

Unauthorized access is one of the many risks that can lead to technology failures and errors. Suppose an unauthorized person gains access to an organization’s network. In that case, they can steal or destroy private data, carry out fraud, steal user identities, compromise systems, and use them for illegitimate or criminal activity. That is the reason unauthorized access is considered a significant technology risk.

According to a survey conducted by ServiceNow and ThoughtLab, more than seven in 10 CEOs say that technology risk is their bank's biggest risk. 52% of the banks surveyed say that managing the risks of digital innovation is crucial for future growth and financial success.

Unauthorized access can be prevented by implementing various measures, such as:

• Using a network monitoring tool/rogue detection software that can detect and alert unauthorized devices in real-time. The software automatically tracks all devices in your network and alerts you when a rogue or unauthorized device enters your network.
• Securing your wireless network with strong encryption and authentication protocols, such as WPA2 or WPA3. This can prevent unauthorized devices from joining your network or intercepting your traffic.
• Implementing a strict BYOD policy that requires employees to register their personal devices and comply with security standards. This can reduce the risk of unauthorized devices being introduced to your network by employees or third-party vendors.
• Educating your users and staff about the risks of unauthorized device monitoring and the best practices to avoid it. This can help them recognize and report suspicious activity or devices on your network.

Let us see how a device visibility and control software functions to automatically alert when a rogue or unauthorized device enters your network.

What Is Device Visibility and Control?

Device visibility and control is a cybersecurity concept that refers to the ability to discover, identify, monitor, and manage all the devices that are connected to a network, regardless of their type, location, or ownership. Device visibility and control help organizations to reduce the risk of unauthorized or compromised devices accessing sensitive data or disrupting network operations. Device visibility and control also enable organizations to enforce security policies and compliance standards across their network infrastructure.

How Does Device Visibility and Control Help an Organization?

• It improves network security by detecting and blocking rogue or malicious devices, such as hackers, bots, sniffers, or ransomware.
• It enhances network performance by optimizing device configuration and resource allocation, such as bandwidth, power, or CPU.
• It supports network automation and orchestration by integrating with other security tools and platforms, such as firewalls, antivirus, or cloud services.
• It facilitates network auditing and reporting by providing detailed information and analytics on device activity and behavior, such as traffic, alerts, or incidents.

What Are the Challenges?

• It requires a comprehensive and scalable solution that can handle the diversity and complexity of modern networks, such as IT, IoT, OT, or cloud environments.
• It demands a flexible and adaptive solution that can keep up with the dynamic and evolving nature of network devices, such as new types, models, or updates.
• It involves a user-friendly and cost-effective solution that can minimize the impact on network performance and user experience, such as latency, disruption, or installation.

Device Visibility and Control Strategy

A device visibility and control strategy can help an organization to improve its network security and performance, support its network automation and orchestration, and facilitate its network auditing and reporting.

A device visibility and control strategy should include the following elements:

• A device inventory that provides a comprehensive and up-to-date list of all the devices on the network, along with their attributes, such as identity, role, function, or risk.
• A device classification that categorizes the devices into different types, such as IT, IoT, OT, or cloud devices, based on their characteristics and functions.
• A device assessment that evaluates the security posture and compliance status of the devices, such as vulnerabilities, patches, configurations, or certificates.
• A device monitoring that tracks the activity and behavior of the devices, such as traffic, alerts, or incidents.
• A device control that enforces granular access policies and remediation actions on the devices, such as blocking, quarantining, patching, or encrypting.
• A device integration that connects the device visibility and control solution with other security and management systems, such as SIEM, firewall, antivirus, or cloud services.
• A device segmentation that creates and manages logical network segments based on device attributes, such as identity, role, function, or risk.
• An automation that automates workflows and orchestrates actions across different systems based on predefined rules or triggers.

The Role of CMDB in Device Visibility and Control

A CMDB is a configuration management database, which is a database used by an organization to store information about hardware and software assets (commonly referred to as configuration items) and their relationships. A CMDB can help an organization understand the configuration of its IT environment, improve its IT service management, and reduce its operational risks.

A CMDB Typically Contains the Following Information

• Configuration items (CIs): These are the assets under configuration management, such as servers, routers, applications, virtual machines, containers, or even logical constructs such as portfolios. Each CI has a unique identifier and a set of attributes that describe its characteristics and functions.
• CI attributes: These are the properties of each CI, such as name, description, owner, location, status, version, or importance. Attributes can vary depending on the type and category of the CI.
• CI relationships: These are the connections between CIs that indicate how they depend on or affect each other. Relationships can be of different types, such as containment, dependency, association, or inheritance. Relationships can help to understand the impact and root cause of changes or incidents.

Benefits of a CMDB

• Improving IT service delivery by providing a single source of truth for all IT assets and their configurations.
• Enhancing IT security by detecting and preventing unauthorized or malicious changes to IT assets and their configurations.
• Supporting IT compliance by maintaining audit trails and controls for IT assets and their configurations.
• Optimizing IT performance by identifying and resolving configuration issues and bottlenecks.
• Enabling IT automation and orchestration by integrating with other IT tools and platforms.

Device Visibility and Control by Using CMDB

One of the main benefits of a CMDB is to provide device visibility and control. That means having a clear and accurate view of all the devices in the IT environment, including their location, status, configuration, and history. By using CMDB, IT teams can gain a comprehensive and holistic view of their device landscape and the ability to manage and optimize it effectively. This can be achieved by:

• Auto-discovering all the devices in the IT environment and collecting relevant data about them is the first step of building a CMDB.
• To improve the data quality, consistency, and accuracy of a CMDB, normalization and enriching the data is required. 
• Storing the data in a centralized and secure repository that can be accessed by all the authorized users and applications in an organization is a key benefit of a CMDB, as it enables data sharing and collaboration across different IT functions and processes.
• A CMDB can support IT service delivery and optimization by mapping the relationships and dependencies between devices and other CIs, such as applications, business processes, etc., as well as by providing a visual representation of the IT infrastructure and its components
• A CMDB can improve IT security and compliance by tracking and recording the changes and configurations of the devices over time, as well as by identifying and resolving any unauthorized or non-compliant changes.
• Integrating with other IT systems and tools is a key capability of a CMDB, as it allows IT teams to leverage the data and functionality of the CMDB across different IT domains and processes.
• A CMDB can facilitate IT decision-making and planning by providing reports and dashboards that show the current and historical state of the devices and their performance, highlighting any trends, issues, or opportunities for improvement.

Cybersecurity Risk and Compliance and CMDB

The growth in connected assets has increased the attack surface and created new network blind spots where cyber risk goes unchecked. This is a significant challenge for organizations to maintain continuous enterprise-wide asset inventory accuracy, insight, and compliance. However, an integration of cybersecurity risk and compliance tools with CMDB can help organizations maintain a real-time single source of truth for all connected assets, including IoT, Operational Technology (OT), cloud, and traditional IT. This integration can reduce asset inventory management, audit, and labor costs. It offers enhanced visibility, proactive risk management, streamlined processes, and better compliance and audit readiness.

This solution prevents unauthorized and retired devices from accessing your network. CMDB can be used as the Verification Source for Authentications, and it ensures that all owned and/or authorized devices are in the CMDB. When devices attempt to connect to the network, the monitoring tool searches for the device in the CMDB. If the device is found with a valid status, the device is permitted onto the network.

By integrating cybersecurity risk and compliance tools with CMDB, organizations can maintain a comprehensive cybersecurity solution that provides enhanced visibility, proactive risk management, streamlined processes, and better compliance and audit readiness. This integration helps organizations to maintain continuous enterprise-wide asset inventory accuracy, insight, and compliance and reduces asset inventory management, audit, and labor costs.

Conclusion

In this modern technology world with a lot of connected assets in banks, device visibility and control play a critical role. Cybersecurity threats are becoming more frequent and sophisticated, and financial services organizations are prime targets for cybercriminals. Unauthorized access to sensitive information can cause serious harm to organizations, including data loss and operational disruption.

Banks across the world are investing heavily in the latest technologies in the cybersecurity space to make their proactive cybersecurity strategies more efficient. By leveraging the CMDB as the single source of truth for all the authorized assets in a Bank, and integrating the CMDB with cybersecurity tools can make it more efficient.

CMDB can be used as the Verification Source for Authentications, and it ensures that all owned and/or authorized devices are in the CMDB. This will prevent unauthorized and retired devices from accessing the network. When devices attempt to connect to the network, the monitoring tool searches for the device in the CMDB. If the device is found with a valid status, the device is permitted onto the network.

By implementing these strategies, banks can maintain a comprehensive cybersecurity solution that provides enhanced visibility, proactive risk management, streamlined processes, and better compliance and audit readiness. These strategies help organizations maintain continuous enterprise-wide asset inventory accuracy, insight, and compliance and reduce asset inventory management, audit, and labor costs.