Qualys Launches QualysGuard for Network Admission Control (NAC)

Redwood City, CA — October 18, 2005 — Qualys, Inc., the leading provider of on demand vulnerability management and policy compliance solutions, today announced the integration of its QualysGuard on demand vulnerability management solution with the Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) program.

Cisco NAC is a set of technologies and solutions built on an industry initiative led by Cisco Systems. Cisco NAC uses network infrastructure to enforce security policy compliance on all devices seeking to access network computing resources, thus limiting damage from emerging security threats. NAC is part of the Cisco Self-Defending Network security strategy which helps increase network intelligence in order to enable the network to automatically identify, prevent, and adapt to security threats.

Until now, auditing unmanaged devices for security vulnerabilities before accessing the network was a challenge for enterprises seeking to limit damages from viruses and worms. With QualysGuard for NAC, organizations can automatically audit NAC agentless hosts attempting network connection, without any software to install or manage.

“Organizations have been leaving the ‘front door’ open to their networks,” said Lawrence Orans, research director at Gartner. “This mindset is the root cause for many problems and it has to stop. Network Access Control (NAC) allows network managers to take back control of their network, so that they have the ability to block or quarantine devices that do not comply with policies.”

Available immediately, NAC support has been integrated into the QualysGuard scanner appliance, giving organizations a cost effective, easy to deploy solution for auditing devices before they are granted network access.

With QualysGuard for NAC, global organizations can audit hosts and network devices including workstation, laptops, printers, wireless access points, etc. to identify critical vulnerabilities and determine their security posture for admission control. Once an audit is completed and the host is found to be trusted and secure, access to the network is granted, without any user action required. On the other hand, hosts that are deemed infected will be denied access or quarantined into a special network and may require user action and remediation.

“NAC was designed to deliver a new level of protection for enterprise environments. As partners like Qualys introduce NAC-enabled solutions into the market, our vision for a more secure network infrastructure becomes reality,” said Russell Rice, director of product marketing at Cisco Systems. “Qualys’ on demand solution gives organizations the ability to enforce security policy on end-point devices without the need for additional software.”

As an on demand service, QualysGuard for NAC is a fully integrated solution, contains configurable network admission control policies, and is flexible, customizable and easy to use. It is designed to be fully interoperable with networks containing multiple NAC-compliant devices and solutions, supporting multi-layer network security enforcement. Benefits include:

• Agent less solution for NAC
• Rapid global deployment
• Centralized approach for policy enforcement
• Provides comprehensive security posture for hosts before accessing the network
• User friendly – results delivered in user’s browser with complete remediation instructions
• Automatic signature updates

“By seamlessly bringing QualysGuard’s on demand auditing capabilities into NAC, corporations can ensure that unmanaged and unknown devices are not granted access to the network without being fully checked,” said Philippe Courtot, Chairman and CEO at Qualys, Inc.

Pricing and Availability

QualysGuard for NAC interoperates with the Cisco NAC architecture and equipment as available. QualysGuard for NAC is priced at $1,495 per year for unlimited number of audits including support and updates.

About QualysGuard

QualysGuard is an on demand vulnerability management and policy compliance solution that enables organizations to assess and manage business risk. QualysGuard automates the network security auditing process across the enterprise both inside and outside the firewall, and across distributed networking environments. QualysGuard provides network discovery and mapping, asset prioritization, centralized reporting, and remediation workflow and verification. Executive-level reports allow security professionals to demonstrate effective security practices and verify compliance with data protection laws and regulations. QualysGuard’s on demand technology is far more accurate, cost effective, and easier to deploy than software-based alternatives.

About QualysGuard for NAC

QualysGuard for NAC provides on demand auditing of NAC agentless hosts attempting network connection for security posture credentials. This audit process is triggered by the Cisco NAC architecture that uses the audit results to quarantine the host or grant it network access. QualysGuard for NAC is easy to deploy at a global scale and does not require any software to deploy or maintain. QualysGuard for NAC interoperates with the Cisco NAC architecture and equipment as available. For more information, please visit www.qualys.com/nac.

About Qualys

With more than 2,000 subscribers ranging from small businesses to multinational corporations, Qualys has become the leader in on demand vulnerability management and policy compliance. The company allows security managers to strengthen the security of their networks effectively, conduct automated security audits and ensure compliance with internal policies and external regulations. Qualys’ on demand technology offers customers significant economic advantages, requiring no capital outlay or infrastructure to deploy and manage. Its distributed scanning capabilities and unprecedented scalability make it ideal for large, distributed organisations. Hundreds of large companies have deployed Qualys on a global scale, including AXA, DuPont, Hershey Foods, ICI Ltd, Novartis, Sodexho, Standard Chartered Bank and many others. Qualys is headquartered in Redwood City, California, with European offices in France, Germany and the U.K., and Asian representatives in Japan, Singapore, Australia, Korea and the Republic of China. For more information, please visit www.qualys.com.

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

Media Contact:
Tami Casey
Qualys
media@qualys.com