CA service guards systems

Computer Associates has launched new vulnerability management services at its CA World user event, to help firms improve the way they manage their threat assessment and patch management processes. It also updated its eTrust Vulnerability Manager security tool.

CA's eTrust Managed Vulnerability Service is a subscription-based service covering all areas of vulnerability management, including threat detection, patch management and remediation activity.

Under the service, CA will work with companies to assess priorities, install appropriate technologies and determine best practice. It will then provide vulnerability monitoring, reporting and remediation services on an ongoing basis.

CA's system is jointly managed between CA and each customer. "Firms were interested in a vulnerability service but they wanted to be in control," said CA's vice-president of Managed Vulnerability Service, Marc Camm. This was especially true in the remediation area, he added.

CA also announced an update of its eTrust Vulnerability Manager product. Release 8 of the security management appliance offers capabilities for vulnerability assessment, automated patch and configuration management, remediation and regulatory compliance analysis.

The latest release also incorporates a software delivery tool for CA's Unicenter, so when an appropriate patch is released, it can be pushed out to machines. It also works with other Unicenter and eTrust software systems, letting firms link their vulnerability management measures with their change management processes, said CA.

Jamie Slee, technical analyst at The Open University, said the vulnerability management appliance had made it easier for his IT department to deal with security alerts. He said trying to process the many bulletins from vendors including Microsoft, Sun and Cisco had been difficult. "Now we're receiving all the bulletins condensed down into an hourly update," he added.

The product also provides a full list of software running on machines and patches deployed. "It was hard to say exactly what patch level every machine was at before," Slee told IT Week. He said the new automated vulnerability remediation feature would make security management easier.

The eTrust Managed Vulnerability Service is priced from $80 (£44) per node per year for firms with 5,000 nodes, while the eTrust Vulnerability Manager appliance is priced from $9,500 (£5,230).

The firm also outlined more plans for hardware. "The appliance marketplace for security is just at the beginning, but there's a lot of promise and potential," said Russ Artzt, head of eTrust solutions at CA. Appliances are cost-effective and simplify the deployment process, he added. "We're looking at other opportunities. You'll be seeing more and more of our security management products coming out on appliances."