RE: Vulnerability scanners

["Rob Shein" <shoten () starpower net>]

Why do you need a nice weekly report?  Is upper management going to want to
see this report every single week, and if they do, why can't it be
templated?  Keep in mind, Qualys won't do anything for you besides run the
scan and give you the report.  Summaries are interpretive, and best done by
someone who knows the network (in other words, you'll be doing them either
way).  And finally, even considering it taking an entire 24 hours to scan a
class C range, is it really going to take four entire days to
digest/collate/polish up the results, especially as the results will likely
not have changed dramatically in the past week's time?  I seriously question
the notion that nessus scanning of a class C on a weekly basis is a
full-time job.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Williams @ Aspect 
> [mailto:jeff.williams () aspectsecurity com] 
> Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 1:59 PM
> To: Dan Lynch; pen-test () securityfocus com
> Subject: Re: Vulnerability scanners
>
>
> 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.
>
> Still, the incremental cost of their service must be far less 
> than that. Obviously they've invested in a significant amount 
> in their scanning engine and report structure.  And there 
> will be some maintenance and network costs to consider.  But 
> the cost of adding one more customer should be fairly small.  
> If their prices don't start approaching this incremental 
> cost, then there's an opportunity for someone else to enter 
> the market and provide the service for cheaper.  Maybe you 
> can push them on this point.
>
> Whatever you decide, you should also be sure to consider the 
> cost of interpreting the results and making the changes to 
> fix any problems uncovered.  Simply having the scan done for 
> you does not relieve you of the responsibility of going 
> through the findings carefully and keeping systems hardened.
>
> Please let the list know how this comes out as there are 
> probably many companies wrestling with this decision now.
>
> --Jeff
>
>
> Jeff Williams
> Aspect Security, Inc.
> http://www.aspectsecurity.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dan Lynch
> To: pen-test () securityfocus com
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 6:46 PM
> Subject: Vulnerability scanners
>
>
> Greetings list,
>
> Yesterday some reps from Qualys came with a sales 
> presentation for their QualysGuard appliance. I'd like to 
> solicit your comments and opinions on that product. In 
> particular, do you think it's $45,000 per year better than 
> Nessus? (That's about the cost we'd face based on our IP 
> address range.) They claim it costs as much in administration 
> to run Nessus. Does Qualys' claim to more vulnerability 
> signatures and faster/easier updates hold water?
>
> Any input you can offer is greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
> Dan Lynch
> Information Technology Analyst
> County of Placer
> Auburn, CA
>
> 530/889-4222
>
>
> Bureaucracy: the art of making the possible impossible.
>
>
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