As Australia has grown increasingly connected, the security of critical infrastructure has never been more paramount. In response to the evolving threat landscape, the Australian government enacted the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act (SOCI) in 2018. While the act was designed to strengthen Australia’s national security posture, it has undoubtedly introduced additional challenges for organisations that fall under its jurisdiction.

One of the key obligations of the SOCI Act is “the requirement to report information to the Register of Critical Infrastructure Assets”. For CISOs and Network Security Leads, ensuring compliance while also maintaining a strong security posture can be a complex task.

The Challenge: Accurate and Comprehensive Reporting

The SOCI Act mandates that organisations provide comprehensive, accurate, and timely information about their critical infrastructure assets. This requirement ensures that the government can respond effectively to threats and is equipped with the knowledge needed to protect the nation’s vital services.

However, achieving a comprehensive overview of networked assets is not always straightforward. Many organisations have complex, distributed networks that have grown organically over time. Without a clear view of every connected asset, not only is there an increased security risk, but there’s also the potential for non-compliance with the SOCI Act, leading to severe fines and penalties.

The Solution: Asset Visibility

When maintaining SOCI compliance whilst protecting your organisation from cybercrime, the first step is to fully understand your environment and all that needs to be secured. You cannot protect what you cannot see. It sounds simple enough, but mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and even onboarding remote new hires can significantly and rapidly expand your security team’s responsibilities. If you are not equipped to properly identify, manage, and secure your new assets, they become an immediate liability.

In addition to improved compliance, asset visibility solutions provide multiple benefits, including:

• Comprehensive Visibility: Cyber asset visibility tools automatically scan and map out every connected device within an organisation’s infrastructure. This ensures that no asset remains hidden, offering a clear, bird’s-eye view of the entire network.
• Up-to-Date Information: Network landscapes change frequently. Devices are added or retired, configurations are altered, and networks are restructured. An effective asset visibility tool will update the asset inventory in real-time, ensuring that the information provided to the Register of Critical Infrastructure Assets is always current.
• Risk Identification: Beyond just identifying assets, modern network discovery solutions can also help identify vulnerabilities or misconfigurations. By tying these insights into the reporting process, organisations can proactively address security risks before they’re exploited.
• Efficient Reporting: With a centralized dashboard that presents all discovered assets and their respective details, compiling reports for the SOCI becomes a straightforward task. No more manual checks or missed devices; everything is right at your fingertips.

Facing Audits and Fines with Confidence

Since the SOCIs Act’s introduction, organisations are now facing stringent audits and potential fines for non-compliance. By leveraging a robust asset visibility solution, CISOs and Network Security Leads can approach these audits with confidence, knowing they have a reliable and up-to-date record of their assets.

Conclusion

In the age of increasing cyber threats, having a clear understanding of your networked assets is not just a matter of compliance but also a cornerstone of a robust cybersecurity strategy.

By embracing advanced asset visibility tools, organisations can not only meet their SOCI obligations but also identify unknown assets, improve response times, achieve continuous monitoring, and strengthen your security posture. Without complete asset visibility, your organization is at risk of cyberattacks that could lead to data breaches, reputational damage, and financial losses. Therefore, it’s essential to invest in tools and processes that provide asset visibility and continuously monitor your network for potential threats.

FireMon’s Asset Manager, formerly Lumeta, is a real-time network visibility solution that monitors an organization’s entire environment for anomalies, potential threats, and compliance violations. It continuously scans and discovers the entire network infrastructure for every device and connection including firewalls, routers, end points, and cloud devices. Other asset discovery tools require a person to initiate asset discovery searches, wasting precious time and leaving assets vulnerable.

Asset Manager has been around for over 22 years and is used by many Fortune 500 companies. It is largely recognized for its consistency, scalability, and reliability. On average, Asset Manager finds 30% more assets than our competitors, which are potentially thousands of unprotected devices waiting to become an attack vector for cybercriminals.

To learn more about how we can help your organisation meet its SOCI obligations and bolster its security, get in touch with us today.