QualysGuard Security and Compliance Suite, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution from Qualys, plays a vital role in network security and compliance management. The prospect of malfeasance via a network has spurred considerable innovation in network security. Virtually all industry analysts agree that network security should be a product of multiple interventions – virus detection, firewalls, and vulnerability management. Most analysts also agree that vulnerability management is a critical intervention without which virus detection and firewalls may offer a false sense of security. One leading analyst wrote "Security demands will drive a new focus on highly proactive vulnerability management. Near-continuous scanning will rapidly become a standard enterprise requirement as security administrators struggle to stay ahead of vulnerabilities that are introduced by software vendors, as well as configuration errors committed by internal personnel." As you will see, QualysGuard is designed to meet all the needs this analyst describes for enterprise deployments.
Vulnerability Management Solution
Vulnerabilities are weaknesses in process, administration, or technology that can be exploited to compromise your IT security. Vulnerability Assessment, a key element of Vulnerability Management, is a pre-emptive attempt to find such vulnerabilities and to eliminate or mitigate them before they can be exploited. Vulnerability Management is broader than Vulnerability Assessment. At a minimum, it is a process that involves discovery of all systems attached to a network, vulnerability identification and analysis of all or portions of the "discovered" network, reporting of findings, remedy of weaknesses, and confirmation that remedies or workarounds have been applied. Vulnerability Management is a continuous process, any changes to policies or network configurations will inevitably create new weaknesses, and even in the event of no change, new vulnerabilities are being uncovered daily, and must be acted upon to maintain a high level of security.