Qualys Researchers to Present Key Security Talks at Black Hat USA 2015 and DEF CON

Research Includes Unconventional Uses for CPU Hardware Performance Counters to Defend Against Threats and a New Framework for Analyzing pcap Files to Gain Insight into Tactics Commonly used by Attackers

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. –– July 15, 2015 – Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS), a pioneer and leading provider of cloud security and compliance solutions, today announced it will present two pieces of key security research at Black Hat USA 2015, August 5-6 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Qualys’ research will focus on the untapped potential for CPU hardware performance counters in defending against vulnerabilities like “rowhammer,” as well as new tool called Rudra, a developer-friendly framework to identify network-borne attacks and provide insight into what techniques attackers use to infect systems and corporate networks.

Black Hat attendees can also visit Qualys at expo booth #211 to view customer presentations, product demos and win prizes. Click here for a full agenda for Qualys during Black Hat.

Qualys’ Black Hat presentations include:

WHAT: These are Not Your Grand Daddy’s CPU Performance Counters
WHEN: Wednesday, August 5, 1:50 – 2:40 p.m. PT
WHERE: Mandalay Bay, South Seas IJ
WHO: Nishad Herath, Principal Anti-Malware Technologist, Qualys

Herath will present his research on the untapped potential of CPU hardware performance counters and how they can be utilized in unconventional ways to make platforms more secure in defending against vulnerabilities like “rowhammer.” Developers often rely on these counters to conduct low-level performance analysis or tuning, but Herath will offer insight into how features found on Intel x86/x64 compatible CPUs can be leveraged to achieve platform security relevant outcomes that were simply impractical using software-only means.

WHAT: Black Hat Arsenal: Rudra - The Destroyer of Evil
WHEN: Wednesday, August 5, 12:45 – 3:15 p.m. PT
WHERE: Mandalay Bay, Breakers Rooms D, E, J and K, Station 3
WHO: Ankur Tyagi, Malware Research Engineer, Qualys

Tyagi will detail a new tool called Rudra at Black Hat Arsenal and at DEF CON Demo Lab. Rudra aims to provide a developer-friendly framework for automated inspection of network capture files and generates reports that include pcap’s structural properties, entropy visualization, compression ratio, theoretical minsize, etc. These help to determine the type of data embedded in network sessions and when combined with flow stats, regex scans, Yara matches and shellcode detection, enable an analyst to quickly decide if a test file deserves further investigation.

WHAT: DEF CON Demo Lab: Rudra - The Destroyer of Evil
WHEN: Saturday, August 8, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. PT
WHERE: Paris & Bally’s - Table 4
WHO: Ankur Tyagi, Malware Research Engineer, Qualys

Tyagi will detail a new tool called Rudra at Black Hat Arsenal and at DEF CON Demo Lab. Rudra aims to provide a developer-friendly framework for automated inspection of network capture and generates reports that include pcap’s structural properties, entropy visualization, compression ratio, theoretical minsize, etc. These help to determine the types of data embedded in network flows, and when combined with flow stats, will help an analyst to quickly decide if a test file deserves further investigation.

Additional Resources:

About Qualys, Inc.
Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS) is a pioneer and leading provider of cloud security and compliance solutions with over 7,700 customers in more than 100 countries, including a majority of each of the Forbes Global 100 and Fortune 100. The Qualys Cloud Platform and integrated suite of solutions help organizations simplify security operations and lower the cost of compliance by delivering critical security intelligence on demand and automating the full spectrum of auditing, compliance and protection for IT systems and web applications. Founded in 1999, Qualys has established strategic partnerships with leading managed service providers and consulting organizations including Accenture, Accuvant, BT, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Dell SecureWorks, Fujitsu, HCL Comnet, InfoSys, NTT, Tata Communications, Verizon and Wipro. The company is also a founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). For more information, please visit www.qualys.com.

Qualys and the Qualys logo are proprietary trademarks of Qualys, Inc. All other products or names may be trademarks of their respective companies.

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Tracey Workman
LEWIS PR for Qualys
qualys@lewispr.com
(415) 432-2470

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Media Contact:
Tami Casey
Qualys
media@qualys.com