The deadline for CISA BOD 23-01 compliance is coming up on April 3, 2023. In less than two months, federal civilian executive branch (FCEB) departments and agencies must have implemented solutions to fully meet the requirements outlined in the directive, including the ability to automate asset discovery every 7 days and initiate on-demand discovery within 72 hours of receiving a request from CISA.

One of the key takeaways from the directive is the importance of identifying unmanaged assets on the network because of the risks they introduce. A fully comprehensive asset inventory is the only way to fully address the directive.

When CISA first issued this directive, we’d hear agencies say, “We already have an asset inventory through our CAASM. We’re in good shape!” While Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) solutions can definitely help with building asset inventory and reducing cyber risk, they may not be enough to meet the requirements in the directive–especially if they are leveraging an API-only approach.

Challenges with API integrations-only approach

Most CAASMs leverage an API-only (or a very API-dominant) approach to bring asset data from hundreds (or even thousands) of security and management tools into the solution. Theoretically, with a shared data set, security and IT teams can focus on improving their cyber asset hygiene and security posture, and not spending time tracking down information. However, the truth is: the information in the CAASM is often incomplete, and data quality may be unreliable.

Let’s dig into some of the key challenges of relying on CAASMs that only offer an API-based approach and what you can do instead.

Challenge #1: Finding unmanaged assets

Over and over again, we hear security teams say, “We can’t protect or manage what we don’t know.” Exacerbated by common issues like shadow IT, rogue access, and oversight, unmanaged devices continue to fly under the radar, creating potential entry points for attackers. Unmanaged devices are usually the first foothold for attackers because they tend to miss security controls and don’t have an owner maintaining them.

Many CAASM vendors claim that unmanaged devices can be solved by leveraging integrations with existing tooling. This approach ignores the fact that security teams have tried to use data from vulnerability scanners and EDR agents for asset inventory without success. These approaches cannot find unmanaged assets because they typically require credentials to scan or deploy, which are not available for rogue, IoT, and OT devices. As a result, these teams will continue to miss unmanaged devices if they rely on their vuln scanners or EDR agents for asset inventory.

Ultimately, the completeness and accuracy of the data in a CAASM will depend on the quality of the sources you use. While an integration-based approach is a good way to discover managed assets, it’s not the most effective one for unmanaged ones. The best way to discover unmanaged assets is through unauthenticated scanning.

Challenge #2: Getting accurate data

Most CAASMs build asset inventories from API imports with third-party solutions, like vuln scanners and EDRs; they don’t discover assets independently. Instead, they rely on their security and IT stack for asset inventory, so the data is only as good as the source itself. You can generally get a lot of depth about managed devices through integrations, but the quality may be inconsistent and/or inaccurate. Many solutions, like your vuln scanner and EDRs, are not purpose-built for asset inventory, so fingerprinting falls below expectations. Instead, you may get some basic information about the device, like the IP address, MAC address, and vendor, which isn’t significantly helpful for asset inventory. And on top of that, you’re completely in the dark about unmanaged devices.

According to Gartner, data quality affects labor productivity by about 20%. The lack of access to high-quality, accurate data impacts the ability for security teams to make decisions quickly, especially in the face of critical events. To deliver on its full promise, CAASMs need to complement these data sources with active discovery to accurately fingerprint assets.

Complement your integrations-based approach with active scanning for full asset inventory

CAASMs can help with comprehensive asset inventory–if complemented with unauthenticated active discovery. This approach ensures that you’re able to cover all your bases for the CISA BOD 23-01 directive. With a scanner that leverages a security-research based approach to accurately fingerprint devices with high-fidelity, you can feel confident that you have a comprehensive asset inventory of managed and unmanaged assets.

By combining active scanning with an integrations-based approach, managed assets get the benefit of being enriched with additional attributes, while unmanaged assets are identified and fingerprinted.

At runZero, a physical office isn’t what unites us–it’s our mission that brings us together.

We are proud of the fact we are a 100% remote team,distributed across 10 states. From software engineers to product developers, we aim to help organizations keep their networks secure–all from the comfort of our own homes.

People often ask me why we chose to be a fully remote company from the beginning. As we look to grow, I wanted to take time to elaborate on why we made this choice, the benefits to our company and employees, and how we cultivate our culture without a shared office space.

Why remote-only was the right choice

I joined runZero in late 2020, two years after our founder, HD Moore, started the company. We were in the middle of a pandemic, and our conversations quickly turned to the practicalities of running a startup remotely. Because the whole world was still working remotely due to the pandemic, opening an office just didn’t make sense at the time.

HD felt that he could run the engineering side of things remotely from Austin, TX, and he asked if I needed a sales office in Boston. With all the tools at our fingertips today, I knew I could accomplish most tasks remotely.

My perspective was that working in an office is only important for certain meetings and social interactions. It’s not required for individual, focused-work (unless you have a lot of people in your apartment and need a quiet place to work,but even then, there are other options to meet that need such as coworking spaces).

All that to say: my immediate instinct was runZero could run very well remotely.

Hybrid work is the worst of both worlds

Hybrid usually means employees are in the office around 3 days a week. Employers usually allow people to have some level of freedom over the days they choose to be in the office, so they still get the flexibility from remote work. As a result, it’s difficult to get everyone at the office at the same time.

These hybrid models work in theory, but to me, they seem to bring out the worst parts of each working environment. You still feel isolated (a challenge of remote work), even though you are technically back in the office. You’re able to meet with your colleagues in-person, but never at the same time. So what’s the point?

Hybrid models are also not conducive to productive meetings. Trying to optimize an audio and video setup for in-person and remote meetings is an exercise in futility. One person is drawing on a whiteboard you can barely see, and another is struggling to hear what’s going on through the dreaded Polycom.

Meanwhile, if everyone is on a Zoom call, we can all hear and see each other simultaneously and clearly. Video-conferencing software has improved drastically over the last few years and video and audio quality is heads and tails above typical conferencing options, which allows for efficient and productive meetings.

On a personal level, this is how I prefer to work. I don’t have to sit in a car for two hours a day to get to an office and to run between different meeting rooms at different times. I can prepare healthy meals and pop in a load of laundry in between writing up strategic reports.

Beyond that, however, there are tangible benefits to the company itself that made our decision to become 100% remote an easy one.

Remote work attracts the best talent and gives us an edge over the competition

As things slowly returned to normal in 2021, more companies began to ask employees to come back to the office. However, not all of them wanted to return.

We saw this as a competitive advantage for us. We offered a workplace that allowed for talented individuals to continue working independently, while also being part of a team that shared their values. The certainty that we were never going to ask people to come to an office was a big plus for a lot of people.

In turn, the talent pool we could choose from actually broadened. Now we could pick up people from companies that wanted employees to return when they didn’t want to. We weren’t restricted to a single city either. We could attract quality candidates nationwide and hire, onboard, and train them quickly and efficiently. That’s a cost advantage that we can reinvest in the company.

As a result, our employees have also shared feedback that they are able to maintain a better work-life balance, while also feeling connected to the company mission.

Staying Connected While Apart: How We Cultivate a Company Culture

Admittedly, a formidable challenge to not having a physical workplace is missing out on what I would call ‘water cooler chatter’: those impromptu conversations. Sometimes they were about work, other times about our personal lives. These moments are crucial to helping teams feel connected to a shared experience.

However, company culture is so much more than incidental conversations around the office. It’s about people feeling like they are truly a part of something, and that kind of culture is cultivated thoughtfully and holistically.

First and foremost, understanding our cultural values was key to helping us build a remote culture – or any company culture. Then, our focus shifted to understanding how we help connect people to those values, help people develop 1-on-1 relationships, and foster interpersonal communication that builds the fabric of the company.

Let’s talk about some practical ways we foster and maintain company culture across time zones and locations.

Practical Ways we Manage Culture (and the tools we use!)

We still see the value of in-person interactions. We choose differently.

Our approach to communication is if it involves simply transferring knowledge or information, it can be accomplished virtually (through Slack, Zoom, or recorded video).

For example, we host monthly virtual town halls, which all employees and executives attend. Town halls are an important way to keep information flowing. We are open about our standing as a company, where we are going, and what’s coming next. Transparency is an even higher priority when you operate as a 100% remote company, and that’s why it’s one of our core values.

To set the tone for our time together, we usually kick off each meeting with a soundtrack. One time, after we closed a big customer in the telecommunications space, we played Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”. We take our work seriously, but we also like to have a little fun.

Since our town halls focus mainly on sharing information, they can be virtual. Meanwhile, we reserve in-person events for culture-building activities and interactions.

For example, we had our first ever company-wide meeting in-person in October 2022 in San Diego, an event we plan to host yearly. We had two to three hours of scheduled time during the day that involved sitting in a room pouring over information. The rest of each day was dedicated to team building exercises and common activities to foster lots of unstructured interactions. We also plan to meet up a second time each year for a go-to-market kickoff.

We use communication tools effectively and creatively

As you can expect, we use Slack for work-related communications, including weekly one-on-ones and asynchronous communications on important work matters.

We also use it as a way for everyone to connect. Lots of people check in with each other in the morning on the #casual-random Slack channel. We have a channel for foodies, movies, books, pets, kids,and many other channels to help employees connect who live in the same geographical area and sometimes get together in-person.

When you work remotely, almost every interaction is scheduled, and it can start to feel too structured. To help with this, we use Donut.com; it picks two random people within the company’s Slack that haven’t chatted in a while and pairs them up that month for a 30 minute one-on-one meeting. This meeting has no specific business purpose; it is simply there to mimic–to some degree–those casual water cooler conversations. This tool is a great way to make those types of conversations happen, and we have received positive feedback from employees who have built relationships this way.

Another tool we have used is called Gather.Town. You walk around a room that looks like an 8-bit game. As you wander, you can hear and see people standing near you (virtually), similar to a cocktail party. It’s a fun, gamified way to have a sort of happy hour with colleagues.

Our Head of People, Madison Smiser, has also been organizing company coffees (some virtual, some in-person where possible), show and tells, and breakout groups. We certainly don’t have it all figured out, but we are always listening to feedback and trying out new things. We know that socializing is an important part of building culture inside a company (remote or not).

Is going remote the right choice for you?

Truthfully, remote work is not for everyone, and that’s okay. Some people don’t have the physical workspace or environment to work remotely, while others work in service-based industries or manufacturing where it’s not a feasible option.

There are certainly challenges to running a remote company, but at the end of the day it can contribute positively to employee satisfaction and culture. There is something fascinating about the level of trust that binds a team together when everyone works remotely. It’s a benefit that comes from being in completely different places and, yet, still feeling connected.

If you’re interested in joining a fully remote workplace that’s building culture in creative ways, check out our Careers page.

I once managed a product line when I didn’t even have access to revenue figures. Looking back now, that seems unthinkable. How was I supposed to manage a business when I didn’t even know how it was doing? I’m going to bet many others have a story like that too: where a culture of secrecy kept them from effectively doing their job.

In contrast, at runZero, we work at creating a culture of transparency: an environment where information flows between different levels of the organization and employees feel comfortable asking questions and sharing feedback.

When the executive team openly communicates with their employees, it builds trust and respect. In turn, employees are more likely to be productive and act in the best interest of the company. At tech companies, employees especially need access to accurate, up-to-date information to do their jobs well.

Ultimately, a culture of transparency leads to success because everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals. Let’s dive into the specific values we’ve developed to promote and nurture transparency within our company.

Decentralize decision-making

At runZero, transparency is a fundamental part of the way we do business. We focus on openness, so everyone knows the expectations, trusts each other, and feels confident in their role.

This level of transparency plays out in a variety of ways. At our monthly virtual town halls, for example, we are open about our standing as a company, where we are going, and what’s coming next. Our town halls deliver detailed information on financials, business performance, and even our cash position. We intend to be as honest if our cash position ever changes for the worse (though it hasn’t happened yet at the moment). By building trust and being transparent, everyone at runZero will feel like they are part of our successes and solutions.

When it comes to strategic planning, leaders provide context on the business to the team ahead of time, even if final decisions aren’t made yet. Leadership needs to be vulnerable in order to do this. They need to be able to admit that they don’t have all the answers yet, but are willing to share where they are in the process. This approach fosters collaboration and invites feedback. These are key elements to solving complex problems. We also take this approach in our one-on-one meetings.

We don’t pretend to have all the answers and understand that our employees may feel some degree of ambiguity in the face of such openness. This mindset allows for a free exchange of ideas between leadership and staff and promotes an environment where key players can work together to come to a consensus. The openness and directness of our leadership encourages employees to participate in the brainstorming process, ensuring that we make decisions based on collective wisdom instead of individual opinion.

When employees are confident in the knowledge they have, they can make the informed decisions independently, instead of expending time and resources asking for approvals internally. Transparency is essential for creating an environment where autonomous decision-making is not only accepted but encouraged.

The line between confidentiality and transparency

While transparency helps keep everyone in the loop, there are certain aspects of any business that must remain confidential, such as employee data and other human resources type information. In these cases, full transparency is not always the best solution.

In fact, during times of rebranding or restructuring, it’s better to wait until the new direction is clear before sharing any information widely, so it doesn’t create confusion. Information shared in confidence, for example about performance or health issues, should also not be shared widely.

However, our internal communication will always strive to be as honest and transparent as reasonably possible. We trust our employees to handle sensitive matters with utmost discretion and integrity.

Foster transparency through sharing

Information hoarding and siloed decision-making leads to inefficient processes and mistrust inside an organization.

Employees often hoard information to protect themselves from negative perceptions or to make themselves more valuable in the organization. However, when employees feel secure and comfortable in their environment, information hoarding becomes unnecessary.

That’s why we model and reward information sharing and transparency. For example, runZero’s Google Drive is fairly open—almost any employee has access to the files, except for those pertaining to sensitive information like human resources or finance. Generally speaking, however, employees can dig around for all kinds of data: company stats, dashboards, Hubspot data, and more. If employees can investigate, they can find solutions. In turn, we give them recognition for finding those solutions.

By providing tools like these and encouraging employees to use them openly and confidently, we avoid the issue of information hoarding altogether.

Help candidates grow through transparency

Sharing feedback with a candidate during the hiring process can be one of the most challenging tasks for any leader. Not only do we have to choose our words carefully, so that the message is constructive, but we also have to pick information that is truly valuable for the candidate’s growth. We also give the candidate the option to decline feedback, as we know sometimes that it can be a hard pill to swallow, depending on their circumstances.

The most difficult type of feedback is about someone’s potential. Oftentimes, this feedback may not consist of more than general comments about their capabilities or capacity for growth. It can be hard to deliver this type of feedback without it being demoralizing. So, we try to encourage candidates, while giving clear guidance on what specific improvements to help them understand what we are looking for at runZero. You never know what could happen: a few years down the line, the candidate could improve with feedback, timing shifts, and they end up being just the right fit for runZero.

We want the best fit for everyone involved. Anyone interviewing a candidate for runZero will be open and transparent, and we look for that to be reciprocated. We really listen for people with a growth mindset and who value transparency as much as we do.

Be honest with customers

At runZero, we pride ourselves on our commitment to fair and transparent pricing. We are honest with our customers about what our product can do and if their requests exceed its capabilities, it’s best that everyone knows sooner rather than later. It saves everyone time in the long run. The sales team can disqualify the deal earlier and spend more time on deals with a higher likelihood to close. Disqualifying a deal builds trust and helps the customer understand the problems we can solve for them – and some return later when they are looking for a solution to those problems. The company experiences a higher renewal rate because customers weren’t oversold.

This approach benefits both parties in different ways: by being upfront about what our product can do, buyers benefit from a service that actually gives them what they need, while sellers don’t waste time trying to convince someone of a product that ultimately won’t work for them.

By committing to this type of customer service, we hope to help create an environment where buyers and sellers form trusting relationships.

The foundations of a great team and company

Open and honest dialogue is the cornerstone of any healthy team. Carrying out transparency in everything we do creates deeper connections between employees, leaders, and customers. We understand that fostering a supportive environment means that everyone should have access to information needed to be successful in their roles.

Creating a culture of transparency guides us at runZero every day. So if you’re looking for a role where transparency is in our DNA, we’d love for you to join us.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently published the Binding Operational Directive 23-01 for Improving Asset Visibility and Vulnerability Detection on Federal Networks. CISA’s asset visibility requirements are doing a big part in moving the industry forward and evolving our approach to asset inventory while also highlighting the importance of asset inventory in relation to national or organizational security.

The directive covers both vulnerability management and asset inventory. This blog post only focuses on the relevant parts for asset inventory. However, there are some important areas where the two disciplines interact and asset inventory is better suited to fulfill the requirements.

CISA recommends unauthenticated scanning for asset discovery

Many organizations are using data sourced from authenticated vulnerability scans and installed EDR agents to derive asset inventory. CISA’s directive demonstrates that while this is a viable way to augment the data set, it is no longer sufficient:

“No special logical access privileges” translates to either unauthenticated active discovery or passive collection, which is confirmed in the following statement:

API queries are only recommended for software defined infrastructure, such as cloud-hosting other virtualized environments, but not for your physical network.

Log files can be a helpful way to augment breadth of asset inventory but they do not yield depth. DHCP and DNS logs don’t yield much more information than IP addresses, hostname, and MAC addresses. This misses the essence of what a device is: you know it’s there but you don’t know what hardware and operating system it’s running or what ports and services are active.

CISA directive solves for unmanaged devices

When talking to security teams about challenges with their asset inventory, they frequently cite unmanaged devices as the biggest headache. The CISA directive seems to optimize for unmanaged devices since these are the hardest to cover.

Many asset inventory vendors, particularly those in the CAASM (Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management) space, claim that you can magically solve for unmanaged devices via integrations with existing tooling. That is a great pitch, but it ignores the fact that security teams have tried to use the data from vulnerability scanners and EDR agents for asset inventory for a long time and failed. They do not provide the right data–we’ll get to why in part two of this series.

CISA is well aware of this fact and recently published a binding directive that requires more than just integrations for solving asset inventory.

We’ll take a deeper look into why that is throughout this blog series. Stay tuned for more details and subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss out.

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Part two of this story was published on Tuesday, January 18, so be sure to follow the story. Also, don’t forget to subscribe for regular blog notifications.

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Our world today is so fast-paced that sometimes kindness can take a back seat. At runZero, kindness is in the front seat, guiding how we work together as a company.

For us, it was really important for kindness to be one of our core values–not only because it aligns with how we work–but because it makes all of us successful as a result of it. We really believe that a kind environment cultivates meaningful work experiences that help drive greater success for our customers, employees, and partners alike.

To really deliver on instilling kindness throughout our company, we really focus on:

• Always assuming good intentions
• Being kinder than necessary
• Working at sustainable levels
• Hiring based on attitude and aptitude and promote accordingly
• Being fair and respectful of the candidate and employee experience

Always assume good intentions

When we talk about kindness, we start with a shared understanding that everyone has good intentions. Oftentimes, even when someone makes a decision that seems a bit miscalculated, they do it with good intentions. That’s why we strive to assume kindness before anything else.

Instead of going into a conversation on the defense, it’s more productive to come prepared to have an open discussion. Asking questions demonstrates that you truly want to understand someone. For example, if a teammate has taken a different approach on a project, rather than making a statement, ask, “Can you help me understand why you chose this approach?” This kind of communication helps to build trust and kindness, as well as communication, in the workplace.

Be kinder than necessary

It’s not always obvious what someone is going through, so we genuinely ask people how they are doing. Whenever I’ve gone into a situation with guns-a-blazing, I’ve always regretted it afterward. It’s better to keep in mind that there might be something more going on. After all, there may be other things going on in their lives, including family, personal, and medical issues.

Compassion has a profound impact on people and can help create a supportive environment for everyone to thrive. For leaders and managers, it’s important to be compassionate and ask questions when an employee is significantly underperforming compared to their baseline. Try something like this: “I’m getting the feeling that I’m not getting your best work lately. Is there something going on in your life that I should be aware of? Is there any way I can help?”

This kind of warmth not only creates goodwill between both parties, it also indicates you are a more attentive leader. One study, which tracked more than 50,000 leaders, found that those in the top-quartile of performance ranked high on levels of warmth. As it turns out, the nice ones do finish first.

Work at sustainable levels

Some people have trouble believing this, but taking time off makes you a good employee. As leaders, it’s important to set this example.

Having down time allows us to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our colleagues. I recognize that it can be difficult to do in startup environments when there’s not enough people to go around to handle all the tasks. However, it’s crucial to make rest a priority for all. Otherwise, you may end up with a different set of problems when conflict inevitably arises inside your teams due to stress.

If your company has a PTO policy of “take whatever you need,” it can be helpful to track your days off in a spreadsheet. Research shows people actually take less than they should, so this is a good way to hold yourself accountable. As a leader, check in with your teams and make sure they are taking the time off they need to be productive.

Hire based on attitude and aptitude and promote based on merit and company needs

When it comes to hiring, we focus on more than just experience. We place a high value on attitude and aptitude, so that everyone has an equal opportunity to join our team and grow their career.

Just because someone has been doing their job for a long time doesn’t mean they are the best at it. We are trying to encourage more diversity in the technology sector, and if we rely mainly on years of experience, then we are dipping into the same talent pool as everyone else. We focus more on demonstrable skills and an attitude that is in line with our cultural values as a company.

We also strongly believe in promoting from within where possible, based upon merit and what best aligns with the needs of the company. This helps minimize regrettable attrition and reduces the amount of time onboarding new employees.

In order for our culture to thrive, positivity is essential. Negativity can spread like wildfire, so we take it seriously.

Be honest about the job

As much as we’re screening a candidate, the candidate is screening us as an employer. We are both trying to discover if we’re the right fit, so it’s important for both of us to be honest.

As an employer, we strive to be transparent with our prospective candidates by publishing salary range data so they can make an informed decision. We are also candid about the challenges of the role and our company, which helps build trust in our relationship. We ask all our candidates to be honest in their assessment of their skills, values, and concerns they may have about the role. We want everyone to start off on the right foot.

Another way we demonstrate kindness to employees is by compensating fairly. We pull benchmark data and compensate at the 75th percentile, meaning we pay better than 75% of employers hiring for comparable roles.

Our employees form the backbone of our company and we want to show how much we value their contribution.

Be fair and respectful to candidates and employees

Rejection is tough, no matter the circumstances, but kindness goes a long way in alleviating the sting of rejection. We try to be as empathetic as possible when dealing with departures of any kind–whether they come from a job application or within the company.

When a prospect has been in the late-stages of interview rounds and we feel we have helpful feedback, we offer to share it. We let them know it’s honest, constructive feedback, but we also also give the candidate the option to decline, as we understand that feedback can be hard to receive, depending on what’s going on in their life at the moment.

For outgoing employees, our company culture works hard to ensure kindness and respect during these transitions. Even when legal best practices restrict our ability to share details, we always strive to uphold our reputation of kindness and understanding at all times. We understand that people sometimes just don’t fit into roles and don’t take it as an indication that someone is a bad person or employee.

Why kindness = success

Kindness isn’t just so people feel good about their work. It’s also for the success of your company. A kind, fair, and just culture sets a strong foundation for employees to feel secure in their environment which increases productivity. A healthy company culture reduces conflict amidst employees so they can focus their energy on collaboration and productivity. Hiring is easier because you screen for candidates that share the same values and you create a positive reputation with candidates and recruiters.

Frankly, it’s also just the right thing to do. Companies are made up of people who deserve kindness from others.

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