Inventory of Assets

Introduction
Inventory of assets is the accounting of information technology and systems, both hardware and software, that is necessary for maintaining a stable and accurate support in order to provide information security and assurance, disaster recovery, as well as to avoid service interruption. In any organization, it is important to have an organized list of all assets including hardware and software, as well as licensing.
Company-issued laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices can be an easy target of cyber attackers. It is ideal to have an organized way of keeping track of company assets (i.e. spreadsheets or database). Quick references such as spreadsheets/workbooks or databases can easily provide reports of asset inventory containing type of equipment, count, value, asset tag information, software license number, license expiration, employee ID to whom assets are issued to, etc. As an employee of any company or organization, the company issued laptops, devices and other peripherals should be the responsibility of the employee that the item(s) is issued to. A stolen laptop could cause the company a huge amount because it does not only require the replacement cost, but has serious security concerns involved.
According to Mitnick and Simon, “Even when security is being well handled within a company, there is too often a tendency to overlook the corporate network, leaving an opening that attacker(s) can take advantage of. Laptops and home computers that connect to the internal network must be secure; otherwise, the employee’s computer system may be the weak link that’s exploited” (Mitnick & Simon, 2006). It is important for organizations to have a well-planned and designed process of inventory and tracking system of company assets and peripherals. A ticketing system helps in the process of submission of hardware and