From: Paris Stone (paris@ciscoinstructor.net)
Date: Thu Mar 27 2003 - 17:25:05 EST
The Qualys box is an appliance that is configured once. It connects out your
firewall using SSL (TCP 443) to hit Qualys's web/scanner server. It then retrieves
the information(database of exloits, etc...) and runs them against your internal
network. It then uploads the info to their database servers using SSL. Then all
of your information is available via the web with nice reporting, pretty graphics,
etc... It breaks it down into reports for techies and reports for non-techies
(CxO's) daily, weekly, monthly. The economies thing is simply that you have a
yearly subscription based upon number of hosts scanned. A fixed cost, 24x7x365
tool that doesn't have HR or benefit issues and doesn't get kids sick and have to
take days off. It IS easy to setup and administration is easy for those who can
RTFM.
Alex Russell (alex@netWindows.org) wrote:
>
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>On Thursday 27 March 2003 12:58 pm, Jeff Williams @ Aspect wrote:
>> Let's assume that you're talking about 256 IPs (based on Qualys'
>> published pricing), and you want to scan weekly. That's at least a day a
>> week of effort for someone (probably more to generate a very nice report
>> and summaries). The cost of a full-time sysadmin (including salary,
>> benefits, office, etc...) probably costs well north of $100K. You'd have
>> to include some equipment costs in there. So I doubt you could do it
>> much cheaper. I think vulnerability scanning is a reasonable thing to
>> outsource for companies that are not in the security or networking field
>> already.
>
>This sounds like a false economy to me.
>
>First: how does the Qualis box remove the need for a sysadmin? It's just one
>more appliance to manage, and something your existing admin should be able
>to do anyway. And if you already didn't have an admin, you'd need one now
>that you're thinking in terms of security. No extra cost here (aside from
>incremental admin time).
>
>Secondly: if you've got a trained monkey doing your report generation, then
>you're right about the costs. If, however, you have a developer automate
>most of that, then you can add more nodes to be scanned at much lower
>incremental cost (change a config file). Additionally, using public
>signature sets may have downsides, but using Open Source tools is good both
>for your own internal flexiblity and for the world at large (checks aren't
>quite right? set that developer to work writing and contributing back
>better ones!).
>
>All in all, your initial costs to do it in house with smart people and Open
>Source tools might be higher, but your incremental costs do not grow at
>nearly the same rate. OTOH, if you don't have any admins or developers,
>then Qualys might look like a very nice option.
>
>HTH
>
>- --
>Alex Russell
>alex@netWindows.org
>alex@SecurePipe.com
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>
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>
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paris Stone CISSP, CCNP, CNE/CNI, MCSE/MCT, Master CIW Administrator, CIW Security Analyst, NSA A+, Network+, iNet+ http://www.ciscoinstructor.net/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The rich man is not the one with the most, but the one who needs the least" top spam and e-mail risk at the gateway. SurfControl E-mail Filter puts the brakes on spam & viruses and gives you the reports to prove it. See exactly how much junk never even makes it in the door. Free 30-day trial: http://www.surfcontrol.com/go/zsfptl1
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