Qualys, a pioneer and leading provider of cloud-based security and compliance solutions, has announced it has significantly expanded the power of its cloud platform by introducing Passive Network Sensor (PNS), a new addition to the Qualys sensor family that natively integrates network analysis functions into the Qualys Cloud Platform, delivering customers complete IT visibility at scale while reducing cost and complexity.
The Qualys Cloud Platform, with its active scanning, always-on agents, container and cloud sensors, provides global enterprises with unprecedented two-second visibility of their hybrid IT infrastructure covering on-premises assets, multi-cloud environments, containers and travelling workforces.
The highly scalable platform performs more than three billion device assessments annually, analysing a trillion change events with its Kafka clusters that process billions of messages daily and indexing more than 250 billion security data points in its Elasticsearch clusters.
Such an unprecedented near real-time processing of data coupled with millisecond search responses of the Qualys Cloud Platform indexing clusters give customers and Managed Security Providers (MSSP) instant, continuous visibility of all their IT global assets with a continuous view of their security and compliance posture in a single-pane-of-glass view, via dynamic and customisable dashboards.
By getting real-time access to network analysis data, multiple additional capabilities such as global IT asset discovery and inventory with two-way CMDB synchronisation, detection of compromised assets and Network Access Control (NAC) can now be delivered natively from the Qualys Cloud Platform with high accuracy and automation.
“While digital transformation is now essential for businesses to remain competitive, building security in is the only viable approach and the days of bolting security on are over,” said Philippe Courtot, Chairman and CEO, Qualys, Inc. “Natively integrating network analysis with our cloud platform brings it to its next level as it provides customers unprecedented visibility and immediacy across their entire hybrid IT environments. With this new capability, we are now well on our way to providing CIOs with a continuous and updated view of their global IT assets with two-way CMDB synchronisation. Such capability is the cornerstone of security, as without visibility, there is no security.”
Furthermore, with this native integration, the Qualys Cloud Platform is uniquely suited to address the number of unmanaged connected devices, like Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT) devices and the exploding new security exposures they now bring. Having the continuous visibility of these devices is critical for IT and security teams to monitor, track, assess and effectively respond to threats.
Qualys Passive Network Sensor (PNS)
This first release of PNS adds a powerful set of asset discovery and inventory capabilities providing tracking and a continuous view into all IT assets connected to the network, non-intrusively and in real-time. It monitors asset activity and illuminates any anomaly, enabling security teams to more effectively contain threats and remediate vulnerabilities. This ability to act with immediacy and at scale delivers these teams higher confidence in the metrics guiding their global security and compliance programs.
PNS will enable organisations to:
- Eliminate blind spots: The Qualys Cloud Platform aggregates asset telemetry from Passive Network Sensors, network scanners and always-on cloud agents to provide a comprehensive, detailed and multidimensional inventory of all IT assets across hybrid infrastructures, including unmanaged devices such as BYOD and rogue IT. PNS also helps discover and profile assets that for different reasons can’t be actively scanned nor monitored with cloud agents, such as industrial equipment, IoT and medical devices. Expected beta available in Q3 2018.
- Identify suspicious traffic: PNS provides deep packet inspection to continuously analyse and detect suspicious traffic. The Qualys Cloud Platform then correlates these network anomalies to other indications of compromise. Expected beta available in Q1 2019.
- Secure and control network access: Native integration with network access control functionality, resulting from Qualys’ acquisition of Nevis Networks, enables customers to respond to threats automatically by controlling access to critical resources. Network access control, informed by PNS real-time detection, autonomously protects the network by quarantining non-compliant devices based on established policies and security posture. Expected beta available in Q1 2019.
