Qualys patch report boosts patch management

IT risk and compliance management firm Qualys has enhanced its QualysGuard Vulnerability Management product with additional capabilities designed to help customers efficiently remediate vulnerabilities by quickly implementing patches.

QualysGuard Patch Report presents non-security staff such as systems administrators with a prioritised list of patches that need to be applied to reduce IT risk.

The new reporting functionality will help improve efficiency by eliminating manual tasks and ensuring that firms do not patch unnecessarily, said Qualys.

A simple user interface provides the flexibility to create actionable patch reports sorted by host, patch, operating system or asset group, and always provides the most up-to-date information based on recent system scans.

"Whereas security and operations teams tend to work in silos, vulnerability management is an area where these teams must work together to determine what needs to be patched, and patch quickly to secure IT environments and reduce the risk of service interruptions," said Scott Crawford, research director at analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates.

"Qualys Patch Report enables security professionals to provide operations staff with a clear, consolidated report of what patches to apply, increasing efficiency for both teams as they remediate possible threats to security."