Enterprise cybersecurity must move beyond asset inventory to continuous visibility, risk assessment, containment and governance across IT, Internet of Things, and operational technology environments. Elizabeth García, Regional Sales Manager at Forescout, identifies unmanaged devices, fragmented security tools, lateral movement and compliance requirements as key challenges for organizations operating hybrid networks. Enterprise cybersecurity increasingly depends on a question that traditional security tools cannot answer alone: What is connected to the network, what risks does it introduce, and what should happen when its security posture changes? This question was answered during the Mexico Cybersecurity Summit 2026.For Elizabeth García, Regional Sales Manager at Forescout, the challenge extends beyond maintaining an accurate inventory of devices. Organizations must continuously identify connected assets, understand their exposure, detect potentially malicious activity and enforce controls across information technology (IT), the Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT).The difficulty is that enterprise networks no longer operate within clearly defined perimeters. Cloud adoption, hybrid infrastructure, remote access and the proliferation of connected devices have expanded the number of systems that security teams must monitor. Some devices cannot support security agents, while others were never designed with modern cybersecurity requirements in mind.These limitations are particularly relevant to industrial environments, where operational systems can support production, infrastructure and other business-critical processes. A device that is difficult to monitor may also be difficult to patch, authenticate or isolate without affecting the operations it supports.The resulting challenge is not simply discovering every asset. It is establishing enough visibility and control to determine which devices matter, which exposures require action and how an incident can be contained before it spreads.Why Asset Visibility Is No Longer EnoughThe first challenge García identifies is maintaining visibility across increasingly heterogeneous environments. Assets can connect and disconnect, users can access systems from different locations, and devices may operate without agents, credentials or clearly established ownership.These conditions complicate the work of security teams that rely on conventional asset inventories or tools designed for specific parts of the infrastructure. A device may be present on the network without being adequately represented in an organization’s security controls.The consequences extend beyond incomplete documentation. If security teams cannot establish what a device does, where it connects or which business processes depend on it, they have less information to determine the potential impact of a compromise.Attackers can exploit these gaps by using legitimate access, moving laterally between systems or targeting devices that fall outside traditional security controls. The risk becomes more consequential when enterprise IT networks connect with OT environments responsible for physical processes.García also distinguishes between identifying vulnerabilities and understanding actual exposure. A long list of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) does not, by itself, establish which weaknesses demand immediate attention.A more useful assessment considers whether a vulnerable asset is present, whether the vulnerability is being exploited and whether the affected system plays a critical business role. These factors help security teams distinguish theoretical weaknesses from exposures that could affect operations.This approach shifts vulnerability management toward continuous exposure management. Rather than treating every finding as equally urgent, organizations can prioritize remediation according to exploitability, exposure and business relevance.AI adds another consideration. As frontier AI models develop new capabilities, security teams must assess how those capabilities could affect vulnerability discovery and exploitation. García’s highlights this changing threat environment but does not establish a specific measure of its impact.Elizabeth García, Regional Sales Manager at Forescout, Containment, Zero Trust and Continuous GovernanceVisibility becomes more valuable when it enables organizations to take action. García identifies lateral movement as a central concern because an initial compromise can become a broader incident when connected systems allow threats to spread.Network traffic provides information about how devices communicate and whether those communications follow expected patterns. Monitoring traffic between systems can help security teams identify suspicious connections and understand how a threat might move across an environment.Network segmentation provides a complementary control. By separating systems into defined zones and restricting communication between them, organizations can limit the potential reach of an incident. This is particularly important when IT networks connect to OT systems whose disruption could affect production or other critical operations.The objective is not simply to detect malicious activity but to constrain it. Security teams need to know whether a compromised IoT device can reach other assets, which systems could be affected and how quickly the connection can be restricted.García also points to fragmentation among security tools as an obstacle to effective response. Analysts may have to move between consoles, ticketing systems and separate workflows to investigate an alert and implement the necessary controls. These handoffs can delay decisions and make it harder to coordinate a response.Zero Trust Network Access principles offer a framework for addressing this problem through continuous visibility, context-based decisions and consistent policy enforcement. Instead of assuming that a device or user should be trusted because of its location on the network, access decisions can account for the relevant security context.Compliance Must Reflect the Live NetworkContinuous governance also has implications for regulatory compliance. Organizations must demonstrate that relevant assets are accounted for, security controls are in place and policies are applied consistently.Frameworks and standards such as NIST, PCI DSS, HIPAA and NERC CIP impose different requirements depending on the organization, sector and systems involved. However, the underlying operational challenge is maintaining reliable evidence that security policies are being followed across a changing environment.Manual audits, spreadsheets and periodic assessments can provide snapshots of compliance, but those snapshots may become outdated as devices, connections and configurations change. Security teams must therefore reconcile documented controls with the actual state of their networks.Continuous asset discovery and monitoring can help organizations maintain a more current view of their infrastructure and identify changes that require investigation. Combined with policy enforcement and reporting, these capabilities can support compliance processes without treating each audit as an isolated exercise.Forescout positions its Vistaro platform around this combination of discovery, exposure assessment, containment and governance. Its broader set of capabilities includes network access control, IoT security, medical device security, OT and industrial control system security, segmentation and extended detection and response.García identifies potential business outcomes such as faster investigation, risk-based prioritization, reduced remediation time and improved visibility into security compliance. These are stated objectives rather than quantified results, and their realization depends on how organizations deploy and integrate the relevant capabilities.Ultimately, the central issue is whether companies can maintain control as their connected environments change. An inventory records what an organization knows about its assets at a given moment. Continuous governance requires that knowledge to inform access decisions, risk prioritization, incident containment and compliance as conditions evolve.{“path”:{“baseUrl”:”\/”,”scriptPath”:null,”pathPrefix”:””,”currentPath”:”node\/65983″,”currentPathIsAdmin”:false,”isFront”:false,”currentLanguage”:”en”},”pluralDelimiter”:”\u0003″,”suppressDeprecationErrors”:true,”sharebardata”:{“buttons”:”\u003Cul class=\u0022social-sharebar\u0022\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cscript src=\u0022\/\/platform.linkedin.com\/in.js\u0022 type=\u0022text\/javascript\u0022\u003E\r\n lang: en_US\u003C\/script\u003E\u003Cscript type=\u0022IN\/Share\u0022 data-url=\u0022https:\/\/mexicobusiness.news\/cybersecurity\/news\/beyond-inventory-how-govern-and-protect-every-connected-asset\u0022 data-counter=\u0022top\u0022\u003E\u003C\/script\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\r\n\u003Cdiv class=\u0022g-plusone\u0022 data-size=\u0022tall\u0022 data-href=\u0022https:\/\/mexicobusiness.news\/cybersecurity\/news\/beyond-inventory-how-govern-and-protect-every-connected-asset\u0022\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\r\n\u003Cscript type=\u0022text\/javascript\u0022\u003E(function() {var po = document.createElement(\u0027script\u0027); 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