Baseline Analysis

An asset is a possession (item or object) that has value and must be protected against harm or loss. Information and information systems are assets. Information is an asset because the organization must spend money to obtain it so that the information can be used to produce goods and services.

Examples of valuable information assets include formulas, customer and vendor lists, sales plans, and marketing strategies. An information system is an asset because each component of the system costs money to purchase or replace.

Asset security is an integral party of cybersecurity. The cybersecurity measures required to protect business assets are determined by identifying the assets that require protection and then assessing the specific threats and vulnerabilities (for each asset or type of asset) that are present in the organization's operating environment.

Critical infrastructure assets are those assets that are essential for the functioning of the organization. Examples of critical infrastructure assets include interrupted power supply to facilities, data backups, physical access control to buildings, etc.

Baseline analysis is based on the idea that a company must establish a minimum set of safeguards to protect its critical infrastructure assets. This baseline provides the CIO or the organization's main stakeholders with a benchmark to ensure that their systems provide a minimum level of security across multiple applications and products.

Check Your Knowledge

Choose the best answer to each question:
Question 1
An asset is a possession (item or object) that has value and must be protected against harm or loss.
True
False
Question 2
Information is an asset because the organization must spend money to obtain it so that the information can be used to produce goods and services.
True
False
Question 3
Baseline analysis is based on the idea that a company must establish a minimum set of safeguards to protect its critical infrastructure assets and ignore all other aspects of the business critical infrastructure.
True
False
Question 4
Critical infrastructure assets are those assets that are essential for the functioning of the organization.
True
False
Question 5
The use of baseline analysis will not reduce the cost of implementing controls mechanisms, and everyone within the enterprise can rely on the same level of security implemented by senior leadership.
True
False