Digital Asset Ownership Heuristics for Unified Vulnerability Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Organizations face challenges in managing digital assets due to diverse operating systems, application software, and ownership across personal computing devices, leading to difficulties in tracking ownership, usage rights, and administrative rights, which is crucial for digital asset inventory control, cybersecurity, and access control.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for determining digital asset ownership using user-asset heuristics to distinguish personal accounts from administrative accounts, linking identities with data sources based on heuristically determined attributes, and utilizing a vulnerability management system to detect and remediate vulnerabilities across dynamic networks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If organizations use large numbers of spreadsheets to track digital assets, then they can maintain digital asset inventory control, but the process becomes time-consuming and prone to human errors
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically discovers digital assets and generates ownership determinations without requiring manual spreadsheet updates. The vulnerability management system self-updates asset inventories by scanning networks and correlating data from multiple sources, eliminating the need for manual maintenance of tracking spreadsheets.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical processes (spreadsheet tracking) with automated electronic systems. The vulnerability management system automatically scans networks, collects asset data, and determines ownership through programmed heuristics and data correlation, substituting manual data entry and tracking with automated digital processes.
2Reliability
If organizations use configuration management databases (CMDBs) to manage digital assets, then they can track ownership and usage rights, but large entities need multiple CMDBs that may not be constantly synchronized or may have conflicting information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functionality of multiple separate CMDBs into a single unified vulnerability management system. This consolidated system automatically correlates data from various network sources and maintains a single source of truth for digital asset ownership, eliminating the complexity of synchronizing multiple databases and resolving conflicts between them.
3Adaptability or versatility
If organizations use multiple CMDBs to manage digital assets across diverse operating systems and platforms, then they can cover more asset types, but the systems become difficult to synchronize and may have conflicting information
Solution Approach 1:
The vulnerability management system continuously scans networks and compares discovered assets against stored ownership determinations, providing feedback loops that automatically correct inconsistencies. When the system detects conflicts between different data sources or changes in asset ownership, it automatically updates records to maintain information consistency across all tracked assets.
Data Source
AI summary
In some aspects, a component may generate an identification for a personal account based at least in part on user-asset heuristics, wherein the personal account is heuristically distinguished from an administrative account based at least in part on a number of users associated with an account that is either the personal account or the administrative account. The component may determine an owner identity of the owner associated with the personal account by linking the identification with an identity in a data source based at least in part on one or more heuristically determined identity attributes.