What is an asset register?

An asset register is a structured record of assets owned, used, or managed by an organisation. In the context of compliance and cybersecurity, an asset register helps organisations track and protect the systems, data, and resources that are critical to their operations.

Maintaining accurate asset registers is a common requirement across standards such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2, as it enables effective risk management, incident response, and the tracking of access throughout an organisation.

Information Asset Register

An Information Asset Register is a list of the key information and data sets your organisation holds. This can include:

• Customer data (e.g. names, emails, payment details)
• Employee records
• Intellectual property
• Confidential business document
• System or application logs

This type of register helps a business understand what they important information they hold, how it is currently being handled, and what security controls can be implemented in order to avoid data breaches or comply with frameworks and standards.

Physical & Virtual Asset Register

A Physical & Virtual Asset Register includes the hardware and software your organisation relies on. It covers both physical devices and virtual/cloud-based systems, such as:

• Laptops, mobile phones, and servers
• Firewalls and routers
• Virtual machines and cloud instances (e.g. AWS Elastic Compute Cloud, Azure Virtual Machines)
• SaaS platforms (e.g. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace)
• Licensed applications

Keeping an up-to-date record of these assets helps manage who has access to them, whether there are any unauthorised devices operating within the organisation, and maintain security, especially when working in remote or hybrid environments.

Updated on: 24/04/2025