Ransomware Reality Check: Deciphering Priorities in a Sea of Cyber Extortion

Welcome to a critical exploration of the 2023 Cyber Vulnerability Landscape, with a specific focus on the escalating threat of ransomware. I have previously shared the broader results we found in evaluating the 2023 threat landscape; this is now a deeper dive into what the data reveals specifical...

Reduce Risk Faster With the Qualys Risk Reduction Recommendation Report

New vulnerabilities are found almost daily. However, most organizations struggle to identify, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities efficiently—making their environments vulnerable to risk. Last year, Qualys introduced Qualys VMDR with TruRiskTM, which helps organizations quantify cyber risk ...

Explaining the Business Value of Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Platform to Your Leadership

New IDC White Paper Reports Findings by Qualys Customers As a cybersecurity leader, you may struggle to help your C-suite see the business value of what your team does. Forget “speeds and feeds”; key decision-makers are solely focused on The Numbers. While reports from most security tools excel a...

Qualys Named a Leader in KuppingerCole CSPM Report

Cloud Security Posture Management CSPM is a crucial requirement in cloud security. CSPM is all about identifying misconfiguration issues and compliance risks in cloud environments. Since cloud misconfigurations are the leading cause of data breaches, you want an excellent CSPM solution on your...

QSC 2022: Listening to the Voice of the Customer

It would be redundant to state that today’s threat landscape is growing increasingly sophisticated and erratic. With all types of attacks becoming “commonplace,” the baseline for normal is abnormal. Bad actors are taking advantage of whatever attack vector they can whether that is a phishing...

Introducing TotalCloud – Cloud Security Simplified

The shift of business applications and on-premises infrastructure to the cloud has resulted in cloud security teams needing to manage the cyber security risks across the workloads, cloud services, resources, users, and applications. Today, security teams must deal with a set of siloed...

Transitioning to a Risk-based Approach to Cybersecurity

For todays CISOs, managing cyber risk is Job 1, and its a full-time concern. This was communicated loud and clear when Qualys recently hosted several CISOs and cybersecurity executives from our global enterprise customer base at our Strategic Advisory Board meeting in London. Their teams are...

Upgrade Your FIM Program to Detect Risk and Streamline Compliance

File integrity monitoring FIM tools are essential for defending business and customer data, but legacy tools are falling short by swamping security analysts with irrelevant alerts. This blog describes how Qualys FIM easily solves such issues by accurately isolating file-level breaches and sending...

Qualys Integrates with Shodan to Help Map the External Attack Surface

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management CSAM now natively integrates with Shodan to enable cybersecurity teams to identify all assets visible on the internet, including previously unknown and potential security issues… before attackers find them. Your attack surface is dynamic. Assets come and go,...

ACLU Attorney: U.S. Citizens Legally Unsheltered from Abusive Surveillance

U.S. law has failed to protect Americans from widespread and excessive surveillance, a dire situation that requires immediate attention from citizens, lawmakers, attorneys, privacy experts and the courts. That was the urgent warning Jennifer S. Granick, Surveillance and Cybersecurity Counsel at t...

IT Asset Inventory Systems and CMDBs: A Marriage Made in InfoSec Heaven

A key capability of an IT asset inventory system is being able to exchange data with CMDBs Configuration Management Databases. In fact, a common misconception is that organizations with CMDBs don’t need an IT asset inventory system because their functions overlap. While they have similar roles,...

CVE-2026-46333: Local Root Privilege Escalation and Credential Disclosure in the Linux Kernel ptrace Path

The Qualys Threat Research Unit TRU has discovered and published the full advisory for CVE-2026-46333, a logic flaw in the Linux kernel's ptracemayaccess function that permits an unprivileged local user to disclose sensitive files and execute arbitrary commands as root on default installations of...

Qualys VMDR and TotalCloud™ Now Available on Oracle Cloud Marketplace

Key Takeaways Qualys VMDR and TotalCloud are now available on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace, simplifying procurement and deployment for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure OCI customers. Organizations can deploy security faster with native OCI integration and one-click provisioning. The combined platform...

A Strategic Response to the F5 BIG-IP Nation-State Breach 2025

In mid-October 2025, the cybersecurity landscape was dealt a severe blow. F5 disclosed a long-term, sophisticated breach by a nation-state threat actor. This incident exposed critical F5 BIG-IP vulnerabilities and triggered heightened scrutiny across enterprise edge infrastructure. This was not a...

Unleashing Agentic AI for Superior Threat-Informed Risk Prioritization with Agent Nyra

The cybersecurity landscape evolves relentlessly, with new adversaries and threats emerging daily. For organizations navigating these challenges, reactive responses are no longer enough. It’s about moving from complex, disconnected data streams to proactive, autonomous solutions with actionable...

The Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR): Six Trends You Can’t Ignore

Executive Summary The 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report reveals critical trends that security teams and leaders must address to protect their organizations against evolving cyber threats. Once again, Qualys contributed to this report to help unpack critical patterns and equip organizations...

Qualys Launches Enterprise TruRisk™ Management: The Industry’s First Cloud-Based Risk Operations Center

In today’s complex cybersecurity landscape, Chief Information Security Officers CISOs and business leaders require more than just a collection of disconnected tools to manage risks effectively—they need a unified, integrated approach. Today, we proudly announce the launch of Qualys Enterprise...

Secure Your Business with Qualys’ New Cloud Agent Deployment using Qualys Scanner

The significance of cybersecurity in today’s world cannot be understated. Businesses are constantly exposed to evolving threats that challenge their infrastructure. Organizations deploy various security solutions to combat these risks, including agents installed on their servers, endpoints, and...

De-risking Your Organization in Spite of NVD Delays

In the face of recent struggles with the National Vulnerability Database NVD, causing delays in analyzing Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures CVEs since February 12, 2024, a significant number of CVEs lacked essential metadata including severity scores and affected product details. Qualys remain...

Effectively Measure, Communicate, and Eliminate Cloud Risks with TotalCloud

Cloud is a dynamic and ever-evolving environment characterized by transient workloads and an expansive attack surface. This inherent nature of cloud infrastructure contributes to the ongoing complexity and challenges in maintaining robust security measures. According to the 2023 Qualys TotalCloud...

The MGM Cybersecurity Breach: Learnings and Prevention Measures

As many are aware, the systems of the $14 billion dollar gaming and hospitality giant MGM have been brought to a halt for nearly 5 days due to a multi-vector attack that has come to affect Caesars Entertainment as well. While the culprits of the attack are not confirmed, hacking group Scattered...

Risk Fact #1: Cloud Migration Exploitation Cloud Security Research Risk Fact

Qualys Blog Series – 2023 TotalCloud Security Insights by the Threat Research Unit The 2023 TotalCloud Security Insights report from the Qualys Threat Research Unit TRU provides research insights, best practices, and detailed recommendations organized by five separate Risk Facts. The insights wil...

Empower Your Security Team With Our Robust Script Library

Introduction Qualys Custom Assessment and Remediation CAR lets you leverage your same Qualys Cloud Agent for custom detection and remediation measures. Yes, the same agent you rely on for VMDR, Patch Management, Policy Compliance, EDR, or FIM can now be used for custom detection and response...

New TSA Cybersecurity Emergency Action Rule Impacts Cybersecurity and Compliance

On March 7, 2023, in the wake of President Joe Biden’s National Cybersecurity Strategy announcement, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration TSA issued a cybersecurity emergency action amendment for certain regulated airport and aircraft operators. The new Action Rule can have significant...

Risk Fact #1: Speed Is the Key to Out-Maneuvering Adversaries

Qualys Blog Series – Threat Research Unit Report The 2023 Qualys TruRisk Research Report from the Qualys Threat Research Unit TRU provides detailed research insights that are organized into five separate Risk Facts. In this blog, we look at Risk Fact 1 - Speed is the key to out-maneuvering...

Join Us November 7-10 for Qualys Security Conference 2022 Las Vegas!

Get ready for our annual event for cybersecurity professionals: Qualys Security Conference 2022 Las Vegas! This years theme is Get More Security which emphasizes simplifying security to drive better outcomes. At the event, you will experience two days of training followed by two days of keynotes,...

Developing a Repeatable and Sustainable Security Exploitable Risk Reporting Program

Introduction The key to creating a practical Reporting Philosophy is/are well-written vulnerability management policies, standards, and guidelines. These are often referred to as a Security, Governance, Risk, and Compliance SGRC program and a well-defined risk exception and acceptance RA program,...

PCI DSS v3.2 & Migrating from SSL and Early TLS v1.1

SSL & Early TLS vulnerabilities such as QID 38628 “SSL/TLS Server supports TLSv1.0”\ will be marked as a Fail for PCI as of May 1, 2017 in accordance with the PCI DSS v3.2. For existing implementations, merchants will be able to submit a PCI False Positive / Exception Request and provide proof of...

How to Meet a 3-Day Remediation SLA & Comply with CISA BOD 26-04

Key Takeaways CISA BOD 26–04 mandates remediation of the publicly exposed, highest-risk, known-exploited vulnerabilities within 3 days. The directive applies a risk-based model evaluating exposure, KEV status, automation potential, and technical impact. Most high-risk vulnerability instances resi...

CERT-In’s AI Vulnerability Blueprint: Why Indian CISOs Need Machine-Speed Risk Operations in the Post-Mythos Era

A Qualys India perspective on CERT-In 's blueprint, the post-Mythos threat landscape India faces, and why the operating model needs to change. Key Takeaways Mythos-class AI changes the vulnerability equation from CVE matching to autonomous exploit discovery, turning known, unpatched weaknesses in...

Announcing TruRisk™ 2.0: Unleashing Next-Level Precision in Cyber Risk Management

In cybersecurity, quantifying risk with precision is essential for robust security posture management. At Qualys, we continuously refine our methodologies to meet and exceed the evolving demands of vulnerability management and risk management. In October 2024, the launch of Qualys Enterprise...

How to Detect Issuer Certificates and Comply with Google Chrome’s New Entrust Certificate Policy Using Qualys Certificate View

Google has announced that Chrome 127 and higher will no longer trust certain TLS certificates issued by Entrust, effective November 1, 2024. This change is significant and could potentially disrupt businesses relying on Entrust-issued certificates. Google stated that "publicly disclosed incident...

TotalCloud Insights: Securing Your Data—The Power of Encryption in Preventing Threats

Introduction Did you know there is a 90% failure rate for encryption-related controls of MySQL Server in Microsoft Azure? The issue isnt confined to Azure; in Google Cloud Platform GCP environments there is a 98% failure rate of encryption-related controls for both compute engine and storage...

Agentless FIM for Detecting Network Configuration Changes

Dealing with multiple network administrators making frequent configuration changes with a monitoring solution that provides insights into device change without causing resource constraints. The performance and capabilities of a network device are entirely dependent upon its configuration settings...

How Qualys Supports the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)’s Vulnerability Management Guidance

NCSC details the importance of having asset management and remediation as key requirements of a successful VM program. “A vulnerability management process shouldn’t exist in isolation. It is a cross-cutting effort and involves not just those working in IT operations, but also security and risk...

De-risking in Practice: How Qualys Customers are Driving Value in Their Organizations

As the threat landscape continues to grow in complexity, it has become more important than ever for the modern enterprise to measure, communicate, and eliminate cyber risk with efficiency. What does that mean in practice? Over the last two days, during the 2023 Qualys Security Conference QSC taki...

Introducing Enterprise TruRisk Management from Qualys

Since the release of Qualys VMDR 2.0 with TruRisk last year, our customers have quickly adopted it to perform cyber risk assessments across the entire enterprise. With detail-rich cyber risk visualization, customers can now pinpoint the areas of their business exposed to elevated levels of cyber...

Why FedRAMP High Authorization Can Ensure High Cybersecurity Maturity

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program FedRAMP is a U.S. government initiative that promotes the adoption of secure cloud services across the U.S. federal government by providing a standardized approach to security and risk assessment for cloud technologies. FedRAMP reduces...

Managing Security Configuration Risk with the Most Comprehensive Configuration Compliance Solution!

Qualys leads the industry with 850 policies, 19000 controls, 350 technologies, and 100 frameworks Remote and hybrid work, digital transformation, and customer experience initiatives require rapid and continuous technology additions and changes. This requires continual additions of and deployments...

Dissecting the Empire C2 Framework

Introduction In this blog we will be taking a quick dive into Empire, a popular open-source post-exploitation framework. Empire provides an adversary with the capability to expand his foothold in a victim’s environment by leveraging hundreds of modules, RATs in multiple languages and stealthy C2...

Ease Your Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Journey With Qualys

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification CMMC is a cybersecurity training, certification, and assessment program from the United States Department of Defense DoD. CMMC is designed to provide increased assurance to the DoD that a contractor can adequately protect controlled unclassified...

Enhanced Native DNS based Scanning with Qualys VMDR

Network based scanning of modern infrastructure is getting very complex, especially when the assets are behind CDNs, load balancers, firewalls, and more recently, ephemeral assets that spin up/down as required. This blog describes recent enhancements to Qualys Cloud Platform that allow native...

QSC Day 2 Recap: Innovation Makes for Better Defense, Improves Resilience

If 2020 was the year of disruption, then 2021 was characterized by high-profile—and low-profile—cyberattacks against the likes of JBS Supply, Colonial Pipeline, and Kaseya. Three years that underscored the need for organizations not only to defend themselves but to become resilient to weather and...

Improving Cybersecurity Practices by Managing the Asset Lifecycle

Securing enterprise environments continues to increase in importance. Attacks on infrastructure continue to increase and organizations need to focus more on prevention. While new vulnerabilities are continually being discovered, companies are also left vulnerable to attacks because their...

GDPR Is Here: Don’t Neglect Public Cloud Security

With organizations aggressively moving workloads to public cloud platforms, such as Amazon’s AWS, protecting these environments is critical for complying with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation GDPR. GDPR, which went into effect in May, imposes strict requirements on millions of business...

GDPR Is Here: Put File Integrity Monitoring in Your Toolbox

In this latest post of our series on the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, we’ll explain how file integrity monitoring FIM can be crucial in helping organizations comply with this severe regulation. GDPR, which went into effect in May and applies to organizations worldwide that handle EU...

Achieve Continuous Security and Compliance with the CIS Critical Security Controls

For InfoSec pros, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the constant noise from cybersecurity industry players — vendors, research firms, consultants, industry groups, government regulators and media outlets. A good antidote for this hyperactive chatter is to refocus on foundational InfoSec practices...

RefluXFS: A Linux Kernel Local Privilege Escalation to Root in XFS (CVE-2026-64600)

Executive summary Qualys Threat Research Unit TRU identified CVE-2026-64600, a race condition in the Linux kernel’s XFS filesystem copy-on-write path. An attacker with an ordinary local account can exploit this race condition to overwrite protected files on disk and gain host root privileges on...

Manual Patching Can’t Outrun AI. Automated Remediation Can.

Executive Summary AI is rapidly transforming vulnerability discovery, outpacing many security teams ' ability to adapt. Microsoft's July 2026 Patch Tuesday addressed a record 622 vulnerabilities, an early signal of AI-accelerated discovery at scale compounding an already-large backlog that manual...

Top Five Compliance Audit Software and Tools: Mastering Modern Regulatory Risk

Executive Summary Manual audit preparation no longer scales across hybrid, cloud, endpoint, and application environments. Compliance monitoring software must move from checklist validation to continuous control monitoring. The strongest platforms connect evidence collection with risk...