One of the biggest challenges organizations face is hardware visibility. Security teams often struggle to maintain an accurate inventory of all devices connected to their networks, particularly as IoT adoption continues to grow. Unknown, unmanaged, or forgotten assets can create security blind spots that attackers actively exploit.
Hardware security is therefore no longer just about protecting devices from compromise. Organizations need to understand what devices exist, where they are located, what software and firmware they are running, whether they are exposed to known vulnerabilities, and what steps need to be taken to reduce their cyber risk.
As digital transformation accelerates and the number of connected devices continues to grow, hardware security has become a foundational requirement for cyber resilience. Without visibility into hardware assets, organizations cannot effectively manage risk, prioritize remediation, or maintain a strong security posture.
Strengthening Hardware Security from the Manufacturing Stage
Secure chips and embedded security technologies create a security foundation within a device at the manufacturing or assembly stage by protecting critical functions and optimizing device performance. However, as these devices enter enterprise networks and become connected to other systems and devices, they also become increasingly exposed to cyber threats. Security teams need continuous insight into asset inventories, vulnerabilities, and configuration risks. Even devices equipped with advanced security capabilities can become vulnerable if they are running outdated firmware, exposed to known vulnerabilities, or operating outside established security policies.
Organizations need continuous monitoring and vulnerability management to ensure these protections remain effective throughout the device lifecycle. The combination of embedded security technologies and continuous asset monitoring provides organizations with a stronger foundation for reducing risk and maintaining trust in connected environments.
For instance, Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management provides up-to-date, detailed, normalized, and categorized asset inventory information, and enriches it with End-of-Life and End-of-Service dates for these assets, so teams are able to focus on eliminating lifecycle issues.
Expanding Vulnerability Management across Connected Networks
Today, organizations face a rapidly evolving set of hardware-related threats that extend far beyond traditional malware attacks. They increasingly face threats from AI-assisted vulnerability discovery and automated exploitation techniques that enable attackers to identify weaknesses and launch attacks at unprecedented speed.
Hardware-related cyber threats are no longer limited to servers and endpoints. Vulnerabilities in processor chips, Bluetooth chips, wireless access points, firmware, and embedded components can provide attackers with a pathway into enterprise networks. Flaws in low-level hardware components can enable lateral movement, malware deployment, and compromise of broader enterprise infrastructure. Continuous visibility into connected devices and their underlying components is therefore critical to reducing risk.
Having said that, many connected devices are still deployed with weak authentication controls, default credentials, outdated firmware, or limited security management capabilities. These weaknesses can make them attractive targets for attackers seeking to penetrate enterprise environments.
Unlike software vulnerabilities, firmware issues often remain undetected for extended periods and may not be addressed through traditional patch management programs. Organizations must therefore expand vulnerability management efforts beyond operating systems and applications to include firmware and embedded components.
Embedding Security Throughout the Hardware Lifecycle
Given how fast the threat landscape is changing, companies have a serious challenge with new-age hardware. Companies should adopt a security-by-design approach that embeds cybersecurity considerations throughout the entire hardware lifecycle, right from development and deployment to maintenance and retirement.
Security teams should begin with understanding how a device will be used, the environments in which it will operate, and the risks it may face once connected to enterprise networks and translate those in to the design and manufacturing process. Organizations should ensure that devices are developed with secure configurations, strong authentication mechanisms, secure firmware update capabilities, and protection against unauthorized access.
CERT-In’s guidelines also call for OEMs and technology providers to implement and maintain secure development lifecycle practices, including secure architecture reviews, threat modelling, security testing, dependency validation, and supply chain risk management. This further highlights the importance of integrating security considerations into the development and manufacturing process.
Security should not end once a product is deployed. It is not a one-time activity but an ongoing process. Security testing, patch management, and monitoring should be built into operational processes to identify emerging risks and ensure that devices remain secure over time. Organizations should also establish mechanisms for rapidly validating, prioritizing, and remediating vulnerabilities as new threats emerge, while moving towards autonomous remediation.
AI and Autonomous Remediation Shaping the Future of Hardware Cybersecurity
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Agentic AI are likely to have the most significant impact on hardware cybersecurity over the coming years. Security teams can no longer rely solely on manual processes to discover assets, identify vulnerabilities, prioritize risks, and respond to threats.
To address this challenge, organizations need to adopt AI-driven cyber risk management capabilities that can continuously discover assets, identify exposures, prioritize risks, and accelerate remediation. To counter AI-driven cyber threats, Qualys has introduced its Agentic AI-powered Risk Operations Center (ROC), designed to help organizations automate cyber risk management and accelerate risk reduction across complex environments. Agents can continuously monitor attack surfaces, identify exposure gaps, prioritize vulnerabilities based on business impact, and recommend or initiate remediation actions.
Today’s reality is that AI is dramatically reducing the time between vulnerability discovery and exploitation, often from days to mere hours. CERT-In guidelines explicitly call for OEMs and technology providers to maintain documented evidence and periodic certifications confirming that security assessments have been conducted and vulnerabilities are being actively managed.
CERT-In is sending a clear message that cybersecurity can no longer be treated as a periodic or weekly exercise. Going beyond compliance, organizations need to establish clear remediation processes aligned with the increasing speed of AI-assisted cyber exploitation in order to stay secure. The good news is that AI-speed detection, hyper-prioritization, and autonomous remediation are already possible for organizations today, and frankly, the only viable way forward.
By Mr. Himanshu Kathpal, Vice President, Product Management, Platform and Technologies at Qualys
