After inputting your Business Entities and importing the necessary Contacts, another key piece of data you input into RM Studio is the Asset Registry. Assets are anything that has value, tangible or intangible items that bring value to the organization. An Asset can be as general as “Headquarters Building” or as specific as “HP Server, XpV_2831”.

In RM Studio you define your own Assets, but remember to only include Assets within the scope of your risk management projects. In the Risk Assessment the Assets are selected from the Asset Registry and the Risks are applied based on the predetermined mapping of the Threats to Asset Categories. When you create a new Asset you must select the Asset Categories for the Asset establish the link to the default threats (you can import new threats or edit the IT threat library and the mapping to Categories, as you need).

The release of v5.4 provides a new way to organize the Assets under specific Business Entities, as well as group according to Asset Categories.

How to: Create a Common Asset

1. 1. Start by left clicking the . Now define your company’s Assets within your scoop for the risk assessment
      

      Asset Details – Basic Information

   2. Under the Basic Information tab, input a name for the new Asset, keeping in mind to use a unique name for each Asset and some Assets may be grouped together if risks are the same (e.g. individual computers grouped as workstations all).
   3. ID is used to describe specific characteristics of the Asset, such as location, IP or OS version. It is not required to define Assets with ID. However, it will improve oversight and make for easier integration.
   4. Select the Asset Owner from the drop down list that pulls from the Contacts you have added to RM Studio. Description is optional, but it provides a more complete Asset Registry, allowing all RM Studio users and Stakeholders to understand the details of the Asset.
      

      Asset Details – Categories

   5. Next, you select the Categories tab in Asset Details to assign Asset Categories to the new Asset. The familiar method in RM Studio for applying Asset Categories to an Asset is to use the button to open the popup with the Categories list.
      
   6. Select all the Categories that apply to the newly created Asset (you can hold ‘Ctrl‘ key and left click all the applicable categories). It is crucial to apply Categories to the new Asset, as this step is a prerequisite for connecting Threats to Assets in the Risk Assessment.
      
      If you can’t find the appropriate Category or Sub Category, go to Asset Categories under the Common entities and add the new categories or sub-categories you require. Remember to link the new Categories to the relevant threats.
   7. Alternatively, you can use the to add the Categories to the Asset or to change Categories at a later time if you need to. The function uses check boxes for selecting the Categories and there is no need to hold the ‘Ctrl‘ key when selecting more than one Category for the Asset.
      

      Asset Details – Business Entities

   8. The third tab under Asset Details is for viewing the Business Entities the Asset is assigned to. You are unable to edit which BEs the Asset belongs to in the tab; this task is done directly under the Business Entities – Assets.
      

      Asset Details – Attributes

   9. The fourth tab under Asset Details is for adding attributes to Assets. This helps with specifying additional data and like ID, helps organize your Assets.
      

      Asset Details – Attributes

1. The last tab is the threat tab, there you can see the threats your Asset faces. You can add threats by left-clicking the   icon or remove threats by clicking the icon.

Asset relationship visualization