NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: NEAL WEINBERG ON PRODUCT REVIEWS 11/23/04 Today's focus: Qualys' QualysGuard
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * The Reviewmeister finds QualysGuard to be a topnotch ��vulnerability assessment service * Links related to Product Reviews * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by SBC Gimme Shelter! Converged Services Spell Relief For Beleaguered Network Managers Switched IP networks are rapidly becoming the corporate communications architecture of choice. By converging voice, data and video onto IP telephony platforms and Virtual Private Networks, enterprises can supply bandwidth when and where end users need it, while significantly lowering administrative and equipment costs. Click here to download this Whitepaper now http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88643 _______________________________________________________________ NW'S RESEARCH CENTER ON SPAM Go to NW's Research Center on spam and find our in-depth review of 16 anti-spam products, our spam calculator to determine how much spam is costing your enterprise each year, the latest spam news, advice on how to fight spam and more. For the latest on spam click here: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88673 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: Qualys' QualysGuard By Neal Weinberg QualysGuard is a topnotch vulnerability assessment service. You start with a 1U appliance that sits on your network and lets Qualys scan your internal subnets. Setup is easy, and the quick start guide will have you scanning in no time. Because it is provided as a service, the Qualys team seamlessly adds the vulnerability checks. Our discovery assessment focuses on how well the products find and identify systems, system software and services running on the network. Our accuracy measurement takes into account how well the product identified vulnerabilities that existed on a sample of lab systems (see "How we did it"). Qualys scored highest in our operating system identification checks and was the only product to correctly identify our wireless access point. It performed as well as any of the other products in the vulnerability accuracy tests, but still reported some false positives and false negatives. It did perform strongest among the products in identifying Windows system vulnerabilities, though. Scan impact was low from a network perspective, but we did need to restart a Red Hat Enterprise system that became completely unresponsive after the scan. Overall, QualysGuard is very flexible and easy to use. IT staff and/or corporate executives can be given varying levels of access to system groups and reports. Scan and report templates provide flexibility in the types of checks that are performed and how the results are viewed. Remediation policies can be configured to automatically assign tickets in the Qualys ticketing system to defined individuals based on scan results. Qualys could improve on remediation if it added some preemptive notification mechanism to tell IT folks they have been assigned a remediation task. In terms of providing some business analysis capabilities, Qualys lets you rank assets in terms of how critical they are to your business. A score is then provided in the summary based on your overall exposure level that can be weighted based on how critical the vulnerable asset might be. One of the best features of QualysGuard is its mapping functionality, which provides a graphical representation of all the devices it discovers on your network. You can drill down on the map to identify the operating systems and services running on these devices, but can't see information on identified vulnerabilities from this vantage point. In addition to the mapping, we'd also like to see some sort of overview console that provides high-level information on the state of vulnerabilities on the network. For the full report, go to <http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/110804rev.html> RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS Security vendors harden products Network World, 09/27/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/092704newsec.html Citadel focuses on vulnerability remediation Network World, 11/08/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2004/110804revside2.html _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Neal Weinberg Neal Weinberg is features editor at Network World, in charge of product reviews, Buyer's Guides, technology primers, how-tos, issue-oriented feature stories and the Technology Insider series. You can reach him at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by SBC Gimme Shelter! Converged Services Spell Relief For Beleaguered Network Managers Switched IP networks are rapidly becoming the corporate communications architecture of choice. By converging voice, data and video onto IP telephony platforms and Virtual Private Networks, enterprises can supply bandwidth when and where end users need it, while significantly lowering administrative and equipment costs. Click here to download this Whitepaper now http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88642 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Reviews archive: http://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/index.html _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE NW FUSION PARTNERS' SITES NOW AVAILABLE Network World Fusion Partners is a collaborative effort between Network World and sponsoring Partner companies. Each microsite contains best-of-breed information as well as custom content not found anywhere else, including a custom email newsletter and special offers. It is current, top-of-mind information that is readily accessible and bundled into one comprehensive package. Visit the NWFusion Partner sites to learn about storage solutions, network access solutions, optical networking and more. Visit NWFusion Partners at: <http://www.nwfusion.com/go/nwprr> _______________________________________________________________ May We Send You a Free Print Subscription? You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered at your fingertips each day. Now, extend your knowledge by receiving 51 FREE issues to our print publication. Apply today at http://www.subscribenw.com/nl2 International subscribers click here: http://nww1.com/go/circ_promo.html _______________________________________________________________ SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World e-mail newsletters, go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/Changes.aspx> To unsubscribe from promotional e-mail go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/Preferences.aspx> To change your e-mail address, go to: <http://www.nwwsubscribe.com/ChangeMail.aspx> Subscription questions? Contact Customer Service by replying to this message. 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