Remediation of network vulnerabilities before exploits strike is the golden ideal for every organization. Proactive remediation strengthens security by removing the exploitability of assets. This is the safest of all states, and helps to ease a traditional reliance as the primary protection against hackers and other network-borne threats. Documentation of regular, ongoing vulnerability remediation is also a common network security requirement of laws and regulations such as PCI, GLBA and HIPAA.

While remediation is the ideal, cyber thefts of tens of millions of personal and corporate records at TJX Companies, DSW Inc., CardSystems Solutions, Inc. and many others show that some organizations need to work harder at proactive security. Effective remediation entails continuous processes that together are called Vulnerability Management. The workflow and related technology defined by vulnerability management help organizations to efficiently find and fix network security vulnerabilities and document compliance. This guide describes the major workflow processes of vulnerability management and how QualysGuard, as an on demand software-as-a-service (SaaS) automates most of these for fast, cost-effective remediation and compliance documentation.