D I G I T A L D I A G N O S T I C S
those that do , some use ineffective manual stocktaking methods , and many rely on inventory lists that are rarely , if ever , updated . Only a third use automated tracking systems .
It ’ s a common school of thought in cybersecurity that you cannot protect what you don ’ t know you have . Unless trusts have a clear picture of their assets , they cannot hope to properly protect them .
Why underutilised digital assets are throwing money away
Repeated incidents , such as the major attack on St Barts NHS Trust in London , or a recent attack that left the A & Es of three US hospitals unusable , position security as an important driver for better asset management . However , gaining a proper inventory of connected devices is also an important financial move .
Faced with pressure to pursue ambitious digital transformation , trusts can often end up losing track of devices . A lack of available IT resources means new assets may not be properly configured and integrated into the network , stopping them from being used to their full potential . Successive waves of investments may also lead to redundancies , with new devices being brought in for tasks existing hardware could already cover . Underutilised assets can present a significant financial drain that tightly budgeted trusts cannot afford ; purchasing too many and continued maintenance costs for devices not being used . But with little in the way of proper asset visibility and management , many will have no way of knowing how much capital is being wasted .
Cutting this wastage requires an automated approach that can quickly and reliably identify all connected assets , without the need for painstaking manual reviews and inefficient spreadsheets .
Getting to grips with protocols and processes
Getting to grips with connected assets requires more than accounting for physical
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