Qualys VMDR Is Now Live: Increasing Security Threats Requires Strong Vulnerability Management Software
Qualys VMDR has hit the live market. Originally unveiled in February 2020 at Qualys Security Conference, VMDR is publicly available as of April 16, 2020. Partnering with both large and small MSSPs, VMDR is designed to be scalable to any business enterprise and to automate the entire management cycle on all endpoints.
Source: SoftwareReviews Product Scorecard, Accessed April 23, 2020.
Qualys, an information security and compliance company, launched VMDR as a cloud-managed IT environment. VMDR is designed to leverage the Qualys Cloud Platform to provide organizations with the ability to unify their vulnerability management across all IT environments. VMDR takes the separate endpoints and instances and consolidates them into their management cycle. VMDR is now available, and it is produced on a per-asset basis with no software to update. This includes an offering of security capabilitieswithin each of the following areas:
- Asset Management:
- Provides real-time IT asset inventory.
- Queries assets and attributes to get deep visibility on hardware and network information.
- Response:
- Automatically correlates security vulnerabilities and patches for specific hosts.
- Automates recurring jobs and keeps the systems up to date with proactive patching.
- Threat Detection and Prioritization:
- Alerts users if network irregularities or threats are detected and prioritizes the riskiest vulnerabilities to highlight for remediation.
- Automated prioritization with real-time threat intelligence.
- Vulnerability Management:
- Continuously detects software vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across asset categories based on CIS benchmarks.
- Qualys VMDR continually identifies critical vulnerabilities and misconfigurations on the industry’s widest range of devices and operating systems.
Source: Qualys VMDR, April 23, 2020.
Our Take
As cybercriminal activity continues to rise globally, a software vulnerability management program becomes increasingly important to help mitigate business security risks. Increases in both the cost and frequency of cyberattacks are among the primary factors that would drive a company to seek an enhanced vulnerability management option. Qualys VMDR’s all-in-one vulnerability, management, detection, and response program provides a comprehensive approach to vulnerability management and remediation. Over time, there’s been an uptick in the number of vulnerability management programs that adopt patch management in tandem, and VMDR is no exception. Check out Qualys VMDR’s workflow to see the entirety of its offerings.
One of the primary advantages of integrated patch management is that once a vulnerability is identified, VMDR can provide a remediation path right away. VMDR will scan and download the patch to make sure that your business is up to date with the latest security patches. This reduces the periods during which your business is potentially vulnerable to exploits, increasing security, and saving your IT team time when they would normally seek appropriate patches. Businesses seeking to consolidate their program library and increase remediation speed should consider looking for a program that has the patch management and vulnerability management programs intertwined. As VMDR becomes integrated with more businesses, we’ll continue to evaluate its effectiveness in vulnerability management.