Not every IT system and not every piece of information is equally important. Many companies invest their security budgets using a sprinkler approach: a bit of firewall here, some antivirus there. But when an attack hits the truly critical systems, even the best protection of secondary systems is of no help.

A cautionary example was the attack on the Colonial Pipeline in 2021 in the United States. A ransomware attack shut down the country’s largest fuel pipeline for several days. It did not affect the entire company, but rather a single critical component. Nevertheless, the consequences were enormous: supply bottlenecks, panic buying at gas stations, and losses amounting to billions. This shows: if you do not know your crown jewels, you protect the wrong things.

What are “crown jewels”?

Crown jewels are the systems, data, and processes without which a company would not be viable. Depending on the industry, these can vary significantly:

• In manufacturing: control systems that keep machines running.

• In retail: customer databases or payment systems.

• In research: intellectual property and development data.

• In healthcare: patient data and critical infrastructure.

The challenge is to clearly identify and prioritize these crown jewels.

Why is this so important?

Attackers deliberately look for vulnerabilities that can cause the greatest damage. For them, attacking a rarely used secondary system is uninteresting. Instead, they target systems with a high business impact. If these systems are compromised, operations can come to a standstill within hours.

Example: In the 2023 cyberattack on a European industrial company, office IT and email were also affected. But it only became critical when the production control system was brought down. Every day of downtime meant losses in the millions.

We explore this aspect in CISO-as-a-Service – Leadership in cybersecurity when it matters most.

The steps of a crown jewel analysis

1. Identification: Which systems and data are truly critical to the business?

2. Assessment: What damage would result from loss, manipulation, or outage?

3. Prioritization: Strengthen protective measures where the business impact is greatest.

4. Protective measures: Layered protection of crown jewels—from Zero Trust to backup strategies.

5. Regular review: Crown jewels can change, e.g., due to new products or markets.

How ODCUS supports you

At ODCUS, we conduct structured crown jewel analyses that connect business and IT:

• Workshops with management and specialist departments to understand the true core processes.

• Creation of a priority list based on business impact, not on technology alone.

• Development of tailored protective measures: from enhanced monitoring to redundancy concepts.

• Clear dashboards showing which crown jewels are protected and how.

The result: a clear picture of where investments have the greatest effect—and a security strategy that protects your business, not just your infrastructure.

Conclusion: If you protect everything equally, in the end you protect nothing properly. Crown jewel analysis creates clarity and ensures that the truly decisive assets are robustly defended.