Instance Security Center to ServiceNow Security Center migration

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Instance Security Center to ServiceNow Security Center migration

    ServiceNow Security Center (SSC) is the modern replacement for the legacy Instance Security Center (ISC), which will reach end of sales by September 2024. SSC is designed to help organizations enhance the security and compliance of their ServiceNow deployments through a unified, improved user experience. Customers are encouraged to migrate to SSC for advanced functionality, stronger security posture, and streamlined operations.

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    Security Hardening

    SSC improves how you view and manage your security compliance scores compared to ISC. You can:

    • Review the latest security compliance score on the Overview or Hardening Comparison pages.
    • Manually update the compliance score from the Overview page.
    • Edit security settings directly via linked setting names from Overview, Hardening > All Settings, or Hardening > Comparison pages.
    • Schedule automatic recalculation of compliance scores by configuring the “SC - Calculate Compliance Monthly” scheduled script with preferred run time and frequency.

    Security KPIs and Metrics

    SSC consolidates KPI and metric monitoring with enhanced capabilities:

    • Track score trends over time within the same interface.
    • Access over 65 new metrics to better analyze security posture.
    • Create targets and thresholds for KPIs and metrics to proactively manage compliance.
    • Navigate metrics via Overview > Metrics or All Metrics pages.

    Security Scanner

    SSC offers new scanning functionalities beyond ISC, including:

    • Manual or scheduled execution of security scans.
    • Ability to create custom scan checks and scan suites tailored to your environment.
    • Compare results between two scans for detailed analysis.
    • Configure email notifications to receive alerts on security events.
    • Run scans from Overview > Scan > Suites and view results at Overview > Scan > Results.

    Additional Security Features

    • Session activity monitoring via Analytics Hub and Metrics > Sessions for better visibility into user sessions.
    • Centralized access to learning resources at Overview > Learning to support user adoption and training.
    • Guidance available to opt out or disable Security Center features if needed, ensuring flexibility during transition.

    Practical Considerations for ServiceNow Customers

    As ISC reaches end of sales, migrating to SSC is essential to maintain security effectiveness and leverage enhanced features. SSC enables you to automate compliance score updates, gain deeper insights through expanded metrics, customize scanning capabilities, and improve monitoring with actionable alerts. The improved user interface and scheduling options help reduce manual effort and increase operational efficiency.

    Customers should begin planning migration and familiarize themselves with SSC’s new tools and workflows to ensure continued security management without disruption.

    Learn the key differences when migrating from Instance Security Center (ISC) to ServiceNow Security Center (SSC).

    Important:

    Instance Security Center is a legacy product that will reach the end of sales by September 2024. ServiceNow Security Center is the recommended solution for customers to adopt going forward. For more information, see the deprecation process article (KB0867184) in the Now Support knowledge base.

    ServiceNow Security Center (SSC) is a security application that consists of a set of purpose-built tools designed to help organizations maintain the security of their ServiceNow deployments. Using SSC, organizations can improve their security posture, strengthen their compliance levels, and do so with a seamless user experience.

    Use this document to learn about SSC enhancements in functionality and how to execute tasks in SSC that were previously done in ISC.

    Security hardening

    Feature enhancements ISC vs SSC
    User interaction updates
    • Review latest score by navigating to the Overview or hardening comparison page.
    • Manually update latest score by navigating to Overview and selecting update score.
    • Change setting configuration by selecting a setting name link on any of these pages and then make edits on the Settings detail page:
      • Overview
      • Hardening > All settings
      • Hardening > Comparison
    Set a schedule for to recalculate your compliance score Using SSC, you can set when the system triggers a refresh of your compliance score.
    1. Navigate to the Scheduled Script Executions [sysauto_script] table.
    2. Find and open the SC - Calculate Compliance Monthly record.
    3. Use the Run, Day, Time zone, and Time fields to set your preferred schedule. Fields used to configure compliance calculation schedule
    4. Select Update to save your changes.

    Security KPIs and metrics

    Feature enhancements ISC vs SSC
    Enhancements to KPIs Using SSC, you can:
    • See the trend of the score over time.
    • Monitor all KPIs and metrics using the same interface and analytical capabilities.
    Enhancements to metrics SSC includes these metrics enhancements:
    • Over 65 metrics have been added.
    • Monitor and analyze KPIs and metrics from a single user interface.
    • Create targets and thresholds for metrics.
    User interaction updates Access Metrics in SSC by navigating to Overview > Metrics, and then selecting metric from the navigation menu. Alternatively, you can navigate to All metrics.

    Security scanner

    Feature enhancements ISC vs SSC
    New functionality SSC includes these functions:
    • Manually execute scans or schedule them to run at specific times.
    • Create your own scan checks.
    • Create your own scan suite.
    • Compare the results of two scans.
    Enhanced email functionality Set up email notifications to stay informed about security events on your instance.
    User interaction updates
    • Run the Auditor scan by navigating to Overview > Scan > Suites and selecting Auditor suite from the list.
    • See scan results by navigating to Overview > Scan > Results.

    Additional security features

    Feature enhancements ISC vs SSC
    Monitor sessions functionality
    • Visualize session activities using the Analytics Hub.
    • Monitor session activity by navigating to Metrics > Sessions.
    Find resources Access all learning resources in a single page at Overview > Learning.

    Opt out of Security Center features

    To disable Security Center features on your instance, follow the steps provided in KB1702514: Guidelines to disable Instance Security Center components (while using Security Center).