Qualys launches InstaScan to detect vulnerabilities within minutes of disclosure

Qualys has launched InstaScan, a new capability within its Enterprise TruRisk Management (ETM) platform that the company says can surface vulnerability detections within minutes of an advisory being published, rather than waiting for a scheduled scan window.

InstaScan is powered by Agent Insta, a cyber risk agent that uses AI to continuously monitor newly published vendor security advisories and threat intelligence from Qualys and third-party sources.

The agent correlates emerging vulnerabilities with an organisation's live asset inventory and telemetry, automatically identifies impacted assets, and delivers confidence-scored detections. Qualys said the capability covers 90 per cent of detections within minutes across its initial set of supported technologies.

Qualys described InstaScan as the intelligence layer underpinning continuous vulnerability detection across the ETM platform. It said the capability feeds confidence-scored signals into downstream prioritisation, validation and remediation workflows, with the goal of shortening the path from disclosure to risk reduction.

"The speed of vulnerability exploitation has fundamentally changed," said Sumedh Thakar, president and chief executive at Qualys.

"A slow vulnerability management program is now the biggest vulnerability an organisation has. InstaScan helps organisations identify and reduce risk the moment new vulnerabilities are disclosed."

InstaScan is available now within Qualys ETM.