What is Qualys Patch Management and how does it work?

In its patching solution, Qualys is uniquely positioned to exploit both vulnerability and threat intelligence data. The strategy of taking patch remediation a step further with zero-touch automation cleverly eliminates non-caustic hazards like continually patching Chrome or iTunes. It's a nice addition that helps businesses lower their attack surface  while also allowing IT and security professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.

Built on the world's most powerful cloud-based security and compliance platform, Qualys Patch Management frees from the significant costs, resources, and deployment challenges that come with traditional software.Connects newly discovered vulnerabilities to the relevant patches. Fixes the operating system and programmes, including patches from outside vendors (e.g., Adobe, Java, Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, etc.) Patching is possible from practically any location with an Internet connection (e.g., airports, coffee shops, remote offices, etc.). It determines which patches are lacking or required, as well as which patches have been superseded. Patches for specific vulnerabilities, severity levels, and known threats are created.

Patch Effectiveness

Among the key challenges that organizations face with patching is making sure that patches are actually properly deployed to all impacted systems across a distributed enterprise.

IT Asset Inventory app in the Qualys Cloud Platform is a starting point for knowing what assets are present within an organization. The asset inventory then feeds into the management interface, which can be used to conduct vulnerability assessments and identify potential flaws as well as issues that need to be patched.

Once patches are deployed the Qualys engine goes back to make sure that the right patches have been properly deployed. Since the Qualys agent provides visibility in real-time about what is running on a given system, administrators can get an accurate view of whether or not a patch is actually in place.

Top 10 use cases of Qualys:

1.  Vulnerability Management: Qualys provides automated vulnerability scanning and assessment to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities in an organization’s IT infrastructure.
2. Asset Inventory: It helps organizations maintain an up-to-date inventory of all assets, including servers, workstations, network devices, and applications.
3. Patch Management: Qualys assists in patch management by identifying missing patches and helping organizations prioritize and apply critical security updates.
4. Compliance Monitoring: It offers compliance scanning against various security standards and regulations, such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR, to ensure organizations meet their compliance requirements.
5. Web Application Scanning: Qualys can scan web applications for common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and insecure authentication.
6. Network Security: It helps organizations assess and secure their network infrastructure by identifying misconfigurations, weak passwords, and potential attack vectors.
7. Container Security: Qualys provides container security solutions to scan and secure containerized applications and orchestration platforms, such as Kubernetes.
8. File Integrity Monitoring (FIM): It offers FIM capabilities to monitor and detect unauthorized changes to critical files and directories.
9. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Integration: Qualys can integrate with SIEM platforms to provide real-time threat detection and incident response capabilities.
10. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM): Qualys helps organizations secure their cloud environments by identifying misconfigurations, compliance violations, and security risks in cloud services like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

We can help your organization reduce its security risk. Contact us!