Asset tagging is a fundamental cybersecurity process that involves the systematic identification, classification, and labeling of all digital assets within an organization's IT infrastructure. This practice assigns unique identifiers and descriptive metadata to each asset, including attributes such as ownership, location, operational function, criticality level, security posture, and data classifications. In modern cloud environments, asset tagging is essential for managing dynamic resources like virtual machines, containers, serverless functions, and various cloud services that are constantly being provisioned and modified.

Implementing comprehensive asset tagging significantly strengthens an organization's security posture by establishing the visibility needed for effective asset management. It enables security teams to track, monitor, and enforce security policies across the entire technology landscape, supports proactive risk management by identifying vulnerable or non-compliant assets, and streamlines vulnerability management efforts. Additionally, asset tagging accelerates incident response capabilities, helps demonstrate regulatory compliance, and optimizes operational efficiency by ensuring appropriate security controls are applied based on each asset's criticality and function.