The number one concern of Internet users is that a web site will keep personal information safe and secure. Toward this end, many users look for a web site to display a third party seal as evidence of security. Using a web site seal is a good idea. But providing true web site security requires more than just a seal — it also requires using several kinds of security controls managed by a security program to back the seal's promise. Merchants can choose from many kinds of web site seals, but only a comprehensive security seal can fulfill all key requirements for web site security.

Download this white paper to learn how the Qualys SECURE Seal can provide your company with tangible evidence that all vital security controls are in place and that the site is truly safe for online business.

If you’re a small business, we salute you. Small enterprises are the engine of our economy, generating innovation, employment and wealth. With growing demands from customers and regulators for security, now is the time to invest in security solution.

This guide offers nine simple steps for implementing smart security for your business, discusses why firewalls and anti-virus are not enough, and shows how you can reduce your risks at an affordable price.

Keeping IT systems secure and running within regulatory compliance mandates, especially for mid-sized and even small businesses, seems next to impossible. There are many reasons for this — but fortunately, several recent technological trends show that it doesn't have to be this way.

This paper covers how small and medium-sized organizations can manage their IT risks and maintain regulatory compliance with minimal staff and budget.

The Shift into the Cloud

It's clear that SaaS and cloud computing are positive disruptions on the IT infrastructure. And, when CISOs select the best SaaS providers possible, not only are many of today's native enterprise security problems solved, but SaaS security services help CISOs to keep their data secure and systems operating more cost effectively and efficiently within regulatory compliance.

This white paper highlights the key skills an efficient CISO must demonstrate to help the organization achieve business growth while operating whithin budgetary constraints.

Database Assessment is not just a security precaution, but an integral part of database operations management. Databases form the backbone of every major application within the data center, which makes their stability and security both critically important to business operations. Timely, accurate scans, in combination with uncovering problems with setup and maintenance, are essential for operations management — just as detection of vulnerabilities is essential to keeping data secure.

This webinar will provide the information necessary to understand the value of database assessments and properly evaluate products both individually and head-to-head so you can avoid common problems that occur in assessing databases.

By David Lacey, Co-Founder, Jericho Forum

Social networks, data mining and Cloud computing are transforming the scale, exposure and control of our data. As a result, security is becoming harder to manage, threats are growing in sophistication and impact, and regulators are threatening greater penalties for data breaches. Yesterday's security solutions do not meet today's unprecedented security challenges and to survive, a fresh approach to information risk management must be adopted.

This paper analyses the trends and changing priorities of the emerging information security landscape, setting out a new action agenda for managing future information risks across a volatile and increasingly externalised business environment.

Independent author Tim Proffitt writes his thesis, as part of his GIAC certification requirements, on how large companies should implement a Vulnerability Assessment Program using QualysGuard. The white paper is hosted in the SANS Institute Reading Room, and provided by SANS as a resource to benefit the security community at large.

In this paper Tim Profitt provides a step-by-step guide for implementing a Vulnerability Assessment Program using QualysGuard. Topics include:

• What is Vulnerability Assessment?
• Introduction to QualysGuard
• Creating Security Policies and Controls
• Categorization of Assets
• Discovery of Assets
• Host and Asset Configuration
• Configuring Scanning Details
• Report on Your Results
• Rank Your Risks and Remediate
• Handling Verification and False Positives
• Compliance and Life Cycles

Whether protecting 5 servers or 5,000, organizations must be able to:

1. Measure the security status of their infrastructure
2. Continuously monitor and mitigate emerging threats

This paper details the essential aspects of putting into place a measurable and sustainable vulnerability management program.

Yankee Group research reveals best practices in proactively identifying and correcting network weaknesses. Guidelines are based on Qualys' "Laws of Vulnerabilites" research.

This white paper discusses the challenges of security in today's business world and provides insight into the value of an on demand Web based service for vulnerability assessment. It closes with summary information and feedback regarding the QualysGuard service, as compiled from Qualys customers.

A Unified Approach for IT, Audit and Operation Teams

This paper provides a detailed discussion of the internal and external regulatory challenges now faced by organizations, the scope of these challenges, and 4 key ways in which they can be addressed through better business processes and automation.

Managing Risk & Keeping Your Network Secure

The goal of a security program is to choose and implement cost effective countermeasures that mitigate the vulnerabilities that will most likely lead to loss.

This paper discusses the management of Risk and how Vulnerability Management is one of the few counter-measures easily justified by its ability to optimize risk.

New network vulnerabilities appear constantly and the ability for IT security professionals to handle new flaws, fix misconfigurations and protect against threats requires constant attention. However, with shrinking budgets and growing responsibilities, time and resources are at constrained. Therefore, sifting through pages of raw vulnerability information yields few results and makes it impossible to accurately measure your security posture.

This paper cuts through the data overload generated by some vulnerability detection solutions and introduces The Top 10 Reports for Managing Vulnerabilities. This free guide covers the key aspects of the vulnerability management lifecycle and shows you what reports today's best-in-class organizations are using to reduce risks on their network infrastructure.

Despite defensive efforts with firewalls, intrusion detection, antivirus and the like, criminals, careless employees and contractors have exposed more than 158 million digital records of consumers' personally identifiable information since 2005. This security guide describes the requirements and on demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution called QualysGuard for effective vulnerability management and policy compliance.

Consistent, ongoing execution of vulnerability management and policy compliance is difficult, if not impossible to do on a manual basis. There are simply too many "moving parts" to juggle and act on in a timely and cost-effective manner. This guide provides a step-by-step guide for automating the vulnerability and compliance workflow process.

8 step vulnerability and compliance workflow:

1. Create security policies and controls
2. Track inventory and categorize assets
3. Scan systems for vulnerabilities
4. Compare vulnerabilities against inventory
5. Classify and rank risks
6. Pre-test patches, fixes and workarounds
7. Apply patches, fixes and workarounds
8. Re-scan to confirm fixes and verify compliance

Key Questions to Ask Before You Select a VM Solution

Choosing a solution for Vulnerability Management (VM) is a critical step toward protecting your organization's network and data. Without proven, automated technology for precise detection and remediation, no network can withstand the daily onslaught of new vulnerabilities that threaten security.

To help finalize your decision on which solution to buy, Qualys provides this 12-point short list of considerations that will help you determine what will work best for your organization.

NERC Standards are a U.S. regulation for managing the Critical Cyber Assets of Bulk Electric Systems. CIP-002 through CIP-009 provides a cyber security framework for the identification and protection of these assets, and supports reliable operation of the Bulk Electric System. This brief explains how on demand vulnerability and policy management can ensure NERC compliance.

This guide covers the steps and procedures to passing an IT GRC audit — as told by an enterprise end-user who deployed QualysGuard Policy Compliance. The tool allowed the audit team to be more productive by focusing time on analyzing the data and preparing for audits — instead of administrating the tool.

Despite defensive efforts with firewalls, intrusion detection, antivirus and the like, criminals, careless employees and contractors have exposed more than 158 million digital records of consumers' personally identifiable information since 2005. This security guide describes the requirements and on demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution called QualysGuard for effective vulnerability management and policy compliance.

Consistent, ongoing execution of vulnerability management and policy compliance is difficult, if not impossible to do on a manual basis. There are simply too many ""moving parts"" to juggle and act on in a timely and cost-effective manner. This guide provides a step-by-step guide for automating the vulnerability and compliance workflow process.

8 step vulnerability and compliance workflow:

1. Create security policies and controls
2. Track inventory and categorize assets
3. Scan systems for vulnerabilities
4. Compare vulnerabilities against inventory
5. Classify and rank risks
6. Pre-test patches, fixes and workarounds
7. Apply patches, fixes and workarounds
8. Re-scan to confirm fixes and verify compliance

With the proliferation of cloud computing, how does an organization manage IT security, compliance, and audit? Cloud computing poses new challenges for IT security, compliance and audit professionals who must protect corporate data and IT assets, and verify compliance of security controls.

This whitepaper begins with a definition of cloud computing and its various models, explains how cloud computing is changing assumptions about security, and provides guidelines for auditors who must verify the effectiveness of security controls used within a cloud computing system. Cloud adoption is real, so learn how to prepare your organization, tools, and processes for these changes before migration begins.

This paper outlines how organizations can use the CobiT framework to assess the effectiveness of an organization's internal control as a means to achieve compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley act.

The growth of compliance requirements over the past few years has sometimes been seen as a US-based phenomenon as regulations are implemented to address various corporate failures and scandals over the past decade or so. In fact, compliance, rules and regulations to protect data stored by EU-based organisations can be just as onerous as those originating from the US.

This paper highlights key directives and legislation as it affects the member states of the EU.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act has had substantial impact on the healthcare industry. Our free guide explains how on demand security audits make HIPAA compliance easier to achieve.

Security provisions of GLBA are complex and process intensive. Our free guide explains how on demand security audits make GLBA compliance easier to achieve.

Becoming FISMA compliant can be challenging. To help you overcome the pitfalls faced by all agencies, we've put together a step-by-step guide to ease compliance and help you make the grade. When you download our complimentary guide, you will learn:

How FIMSA is Defined

Receive detailed information on the major requirements of FISMA and how to implement a best practice based approach to overcome common challenges.

How QualysGuard Supports FISMA Compliance

See how QualysGuard's tailored solution meets each of the FISMA requirements and delivers the proper reports so you can achieve indisputable compliance.

How QualysGuard Automates Compliance

Learn how QualysGuard's on demand solution provides an automated solution so you're always in control of your network security - even during fast-moving worm and virus attacks.

Currently, there is no single standard framework that explicitly defines what your organization must do for compliance. A big challenge for IT security professionals is navigating this ambiguity and achieving the organization's compliance goals effectively and on budget.

This guide covers seven typical IT security compliance errors and outlines the best practices you can immediately apply to your environment to help your company achieve compliance.

A Guide for Merchants and Member Service Providers

This white paper reviews the basics of PCI, including who must comply, compliance requirements, validation requirements and penalties. It also examines key things to look for when selecting a PCI network testing service and introduces QualysGuard PCI.

Topics in this white paper include:

• Compliance Requirements of the PCI Data Security Standard
• Participation and Validation Requirements
• Selecting a PCI Network Security Testing Service
• Automating the PCI Validation Process with QualysGuard PCI

Vulnerabilities in web applications are now the largest vector of enterprise security attacks. Stories about exploits that compromise sensitive data frequently mention culprits such as "cross-site scripting," "SQL injection," and "buffer overflow." Vulnerabilities like these fall often outside the traditional expertise of network security managers.

To help you understand how to minimize these risks, Qualys provides this guide as a primer to web application security. The guide covers:

• typical web application vulnerabilities
• comparison of options for web application vulnerability detection
• QualysGuard Web Application Scanning solution

Current web applications exist in an environment markedly different from the early days of businesses entering the Internet. They have become essential tools interconnecting organizations in ways never anticipated when the first web browsers were designed. These changes have occurred so rapidly that, in many ways, we've failed to adapt operational processes to meet current needs. This is particularly apparent with web application security, where although most organizations have some security controls in place, few organizations have comprehensive web application security programs.

This detailed report shows how to build a pragmatic web application security program that constrains costs while still providing effective security.