Vulnerability Management, Detection, and Remediation - Operational Technology Overview
Qualys Vulnerability Management, Detection, and Remediation - Operational Technology (VMDR OT) extends the powerful capabilities of the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk™ Platform to secure Operational Technology (OT) environments. Designed specifically for industrial networks, VMDR OT delivers comprehensive visibility, vulnerability management, and risk-based remediation across all layers of the industrial control system (ICS) stack — including Control, Supervisory, and Site Operations.
As industrial environments embrace smart manufacturing, Industrial IoT (IIoT), and digital transformation to improve operational efficiency, they also face increased exposure to cyber threats. Traditional IT security solutions are not always suited for the unique challenges of OT environments, such as legacy systems, proprietary protocols, and availability-focused operations.
Qualys VMDR OT bridges this gap by providing:
- Deep asset visibility across IT and OT networks with passive and active discovery.
- Real-time detection of vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and threats in OT devices.
- Context-aware risk prioritization based on asset criticality, exploitability, and business impact.
- Integration with existing workflows to streamline patching, mitigation, and response.
How does VMDR OT Works?
Asset Management
VMDR OT discovers and inventories all IT/OT assets, then categorizes them for streamlined management.
Vulnerability Management
It continuously assesses assets, prioritizes vulnerabilities based on risk, and automates remediation processes.
Threat Detection and Response
The platform integrates real-time threat intelligence for proactive threat hunting and seamlessly integrates with ITSM for efficient incident handling.
Reporting and Analysis
VMDR OT provides customizable reports and real-time dashboards for monitoring security posture, with SIEM integration for broader analysis.
Real-Time Visibility and Risk Management
With Qualys VMDR OT, you get real-time asset inventory, network visualization, and vulnerability management for your industrial control systems. With an intuitive interface and a fully automated risk assessment workflow, Qualys VMDR OT is a powerful tool to reduce the risk of costly and dangerous cyber security breaches.
VMDR OT provides asset inventory, network visibility, and vulnerability postures at all the Purdue levels.
|
Purdue Level |
Assets |
Feature |
Supported by |
Available on Qualys Applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Purdue Levels 0/1/2 |
Hardware like PLC, RTU, IO, Robots, VFDs etc |
- Asset Inventory -Vulnerability Management |
- Qualys Network Passive Sensor - VMDR OT Out of band configuration assessment |
VMDR OT |
|
Purdue Levels 2 and above |
OT/ICS OS-based endpoints hosting ICS Vendor software - (Engineering workstations, Operator Stations, HMI Servers, DCS Servers, etc.) |
Asset Inventory |
VMDR application (Safe OT Device scan support in Qualys Scanner and Cloud Agent) |
VMDR, CSAM, For more information, refer to the OT Device Scan details. |
|
Vulnerability Management |
VMDR (OT/ICS OS-based endpoints hosting ICS Vendor software) |
VMDR |
||
|
Policy Audit/Policy Compliance |
Policy Audit/Policy Compliance application IEC 62443 NERC CIP Policy |
Policy Audit/Policy Compliance |
Policy Audit (PA) is an enhanced version of Policy Compliance (PC). Depending on your subscription, you may view Policy Audit (PA) or Policy Compliance (PC) in your application.
Benefits
Real-time VMDR asset inventoryReal-time VMDR asset inventory
Qualys VMDR OT builds a comprehensive real-time asset inventory via multiple engines:
Qualys Passive Sensor dissects industrial protocols and gives visibility into various Purdue Levels, especially at Field and Control network layers.
Qualys extends the scanner capabilities to perform safe VMDR OT discovery for industrial protocols. This new scan is designed to be safe and talks the same language as industrial protocols querying the devices in the protocol language they understand. This interaction is similar to how a SCADA server or an engineering workstation would talk to a controller.
Both Passive Sensor and Safe Active Scanning help in inventory creation for devices such as Programming Logic Controllers (PLCs), Remote Terminal Units (RTU), Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), Remote IOs, Human Machine Interface (HMI), Industrial Gateways, Building Automation Controllers, IP-based Sensors, Robots, and Drivers, among others.
All industrial endpoints with operating systems like Windows, Linux and others can trigger Authenticated Scans. This is a safe way of getting software inventories as well as software vulnerabilities.
Qualys Cloud Agent can also be deployed on supported OS-based endpoints, giving a continuous visibility and vulnerability posture of these assets.
Both Authenticated VM scans and Qualys Cloud Agent help in getting detailed inventory of industrial PCs hosting Operator Stations, SCADA servers or an engineering workstation, or IT stations hosting Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), ERPs, and remote connectivity workstations, among others.
Extensive Industrial protocol supportExtensive Industrial protocol support
Qualys VMDR OT supports a wide range of IT and OT protocols such as S7Comm, S7comm Plus, Profinet, Ethernet IP, BACnet, Modbus TCP, DNP3, MQTT, IEC 104, CIP, IEC 61850- MMS, Beckhoff ADS, Omron, PCCC, Niagara Fox, and many more.
Out of band Configuration Assessment supportOut of band Configuration Assessment support
Qualys VMDR OT supports Out of band Configuration Assessment. You can import the asset information using a project file, collected from programming and maintenance software. The ICS application parses the uploaded file with valuable data and creates assets from the data gathered. Qualys supports different vendors engineering tools such as Omron CX Programmer (.cxp), Rockwell RSLogix 500 (.RSS), Rockwell Studio 5000 (.L5X), Rockwell System Ferret (.Xml), Siemens DIGSI 4 (.zip), Siemens DIGSI 5 (.zip), Siemens DIGSI 5 (.dz5), and many more.
Robust vulnerability managementRobust vulnerability management
Qualys VMDR OT provides continuous vulnerability assessment on all discovered industrial assets. Hardware and firmware-based vulnerabilities impacting PLCs, IOs, Robots, HMIs, Drives, etc. as well as Software vulnerabilities affecting SCADA servers, Engineering software, HMI Software, License Management Software, MES and ERPs systems are covered via Passive sensor and Qualys scanner or a Cloud agent combined.
Risk scores are based on asset criticality, severity of vulnerability, availability of redundancy for the asset to assist with better prioritization and remediation actions.
The ICS QID Pack available as an add-on to Qualys VM / VMDR is another mechanism to cover these vulnerabilities. Vulnerability knowledge base is continuously updated and maintained with newly discovered vulnerabilities.
Broad industrial vendor supportBroad industrial vendor support
Qualys VMDR OT supports the major industry vendors like Siemens, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Wago, Johnson Controls, Niagara Fox, Beckhoff, Omron, ABB, Tridium, Eaton Turck, Balluf, Distech Controls, Danfoss, Parker Hannifin and many more.