The Benefits of Vulnerability Scanning with Qualys

Introduction

With the constantly changing environment of technology, it’s important to keep systems up to date with a vulnerability scanner like Qualys. These types of scans are crucial to any business, considering they inform you of any missing patches or updates that might be necessary for continued security. When you have access to a scanner, such as the Qualys scanner, you can perform vulnerability scans on demand. These should be done at least once a month, or after any updates.

There are many different scanners out there, but only a few are trusted and used often. Qualys has become a big contender in the lineup and is used by many cybersecurity firms today. It is very thorough and goes through all necessary connections, including those on mobile or cloud servers. The Qualys platform can provides reports on threat analysis and recognition while constantly keeping everything up to date behind the scenes.

What is a vulnerability scan?

Vulnerability scans are part of vulnerability management and will scan through an entire network and its connected access points. It might seem a bit invasive, but it’s important that everything is examined to make sure that each weak spot is covered. Bad actors will be sure to try to exploit small, seemingly-insignificant vulnerabilities, so occasional scans are

There are different types of vulnerability scans, too. However, there are some key differences between them to make each individual check necessary for your business.

Internal and External Vulnerability Scanning

Vulnerability scanning will usually fall under one of these two categories and they are exactly what they sound like. Internal vulnerability scanning will look through vulnerabilities from an inside perspective, from within the network and inside the company. An external scan will look at the vulnerabilities from the outside, making sure there are no holes in things like firewalls or other defenses.

Both of these types of vulnerability scanning are crucial to any cybersecurity posture. Most scanners will perform both internal and external scanning, but it's still important to check before making any investments. Most government regulations require both internal and external vulnerability scanning for compliance. Even if not required, both types of vulnerability scanning are considered best practice for any organization.

Authorized and Unauthorized Vulnerability Scanning

Similar to internal and external scans, authorized and unauthorized vulnerability scanning is just what it sounds like. Authorized scanning will take credentials into consideration. These credentials are things like logins and passwords or a user that was given certain authoritative powers. The scans that use authorized credentials will show a more thorough report, since the scan will be able to get deeper into hidden portions of a directory or server, including those that should be restricted.

Unauthorized vulnerability scanning is a scan without the credentials of an authorized scan. These types of scans will be from an outside perspective with what information is publicly available. This situation is similar to a bad actor trying to get into your network or server, looking for vulnerabilities that exist for them to exploit. The scanner will go through each known vulnerability and threat to make sure everything is patched and properly updated.

Both types of scanning provide valuable results on the vulnerabilities to your organization's networks. The Qualys Scanner Appliance can provide both authenticated and unauthenticated scanning.

Qualys Vulnerability Management

Qualys is a cybersecurity firm that has made one of the most thorough and expansive vulnerability management programs to date. Many other cybersecurity companies are switching to Qualys for this reason alone. The vulnerability scanner can be used in many ways, including all of the ways described above. They have a vast library of known vulnerabilities and threats that can be used to patch and update your systems.

These libraries are also being updated weekly, especially as new threats are found. While continuously scanning through your network, it uses rapid remediation to deny these problems from ever becoming an issue. Not only is it streamlined and quick to work, it’s also easy to implement and maintain. The best part is that Qualys is compliant with IT policies, making it a perfect option for government compliance as well.

Conclusion

Qualys may not be the only solution for vulnerability scanning or vulnerability management, but it is one of the best ones available. With a constant monitoring and an ever-updating library of threats, many cybersecurity companies are switching from their previous scanners to Qualys. If your third-party cybersecurity firm is switching, know that it is likely a step up over what they were doing previously.

There are many different sizes of institutions out there, but Qualys can match any of them. It scales with the business, so as your company grows, so does your vulnerability management. More and more bad actors and hackers will attempt to get into your system if you have more assets, so it’s important to have a strong and thorough vulnerability manager at your disposal. Qualys will help with that and keep you safe from attacks before they even happen.