When speaking about Network Security, Nessus by Tenable Network Security is THE number one reference worldwide, and that’s not fro free: with fifteen years of experience, Nessus by Tenable Network Security is preferred and recommended by thousands of companies of all verticals around the world. It has the best Knowledge Base and expertise regarding Vulnerability Management.
Countless awards confirm its absolute prestige over other brands and products that just sprout out in the market. Products whose proposals, although interesting, scarcely begin to make what to Nessus by Tenable Network Security is routine. This also gives us a clear reference about where its annual growth and development point to in the short term, compared with other starts-up.
Among those companies whose proposals begin to invade the market, we found Rapid7 with its core product, NeXpose… We may call it the new girl on the block whom everyone wants to approach and meet… It’s always good to be open to new opportunities, but mind we don’t lose our objectivity.
So, from our position as experts in products and services designed for guaranteeing your security, we drilled down on NeXpose by Rapid7 to compare to Nessus Tenable Network Security, regarding Vulnerability Management. Then we present the contenders.
On one hand, we have NeXpose by Rapid7. It is introduced as a scanner that accompanies the whole Vulnerability Cycle, i.e., ranging discovery, detection, verification, risk classification, impact, reporting and vulnerability mitigation (Stephenson, 2007, p. 49). It is escorted by its elder brother and bodyguard called Metasploit, in charge of detecting and expelling every malicious code, and exploiting network vulnerabilities ‘for good purposes’.
Let’s keep this in perspective.
NeXpose by Rapid7 is complemented by its pet named Ruby Gem, an application that promises to create and manage the use of special features not available in the Graphical User Interface, or GUI. Let’s keep this in perspective, too.
NeXpose by Rapid7 comes in 4 different versions, each one with features and benefits that improve as we acquire each license. First, we find the free version called “Community Edition” which can used for free during seven days to scan up to a predetermined amount of IPs. Following, we find the “Express” edition, then the “Express Pro” and finally, the “Enterprise4” version. All present their proposals at prices ranging from USD $ 2,000 to over USD $ 25,000 per year.
On the other hand, we have Nessus by Tenable Network Security. More than a scanner, it is an integrated platform that provides the most extensive coverage for Vulnerability Management and verification of configurations, plugins and updates CVE, SCADA checks with a variety of UNIX and Linux, and Regulations compliance with the same license.
For all these advantages, Nessus by Tenable Network Security detects in one day what other solutions for Vulnerability Management can take months in detect, even with the support and verification of other unnecessary tools. Instead, Nessus by Tenable Network Security has its own local agents support for vulnerability scanning, compliance and local audit that also effectively detect a wide range of threats like viruses, malware, backdoors and servers connected to systems infected with botnets. All this information is deployed in reports that also suggest solutions.
Nessus by Tenable Network Security handles three different versions, Nessus Professional, Nessus Manager and Nessus Cloud. With the basic version (Nessus Professional), you can access to one powerful vulnerability scanner that guarantees the detection of more than 60,000 threats, and this number is always increasing.
You can incorporate to Nessus Manager and Nessus Cloud other complementary tools, like other scanners or SIEMs. Also, you can set and schedule scans with simple policies to ensure more accurate detection of vulnerabilities. Same, you can incorporate PCI (Nessus Cloud) and Nessus Agents hosted on the server to avoid the continuous verification of credentials, which allows simultaneous scans with little impact on the network.
Nessus by Tenable Network Security, in all its versions, are the only products in the market offering MDM (Mobile Device management) integration, malware detection, daily updates of plugins and integration with patch management vendors.
So… Why choose Nessus by Tenable Network over NeXpose by Rapid7 for Vulnerability Management?
NeXpose by Rapid7 sells the idea that developers have thought in advance in every security event and, as such, has already figured out the best way to ensure full protection for your networks, replacing and beating as if by magic, products with greater experience and preference in the global market… Including Nessus by Tenable Network Security.
In this sense, much material has begun circulating on the web supporting this thesis, with numbers and statistics that at a glance and for those who aren’t expert in this subject, may seem to have encountered the ultimate answer for Vulnerability Management to ensure protection for their networks. But all that glitters is not gold, and NeXpose by Rapid7 begins to lose its brightness precisely on the interface.
In principle, the interface of any technology product is the first contact with users and our friends of NeXpose by Rapid7 neglected this point in its GUI. Besides being unattractive and unfriendly, it can’t be customized and presents a major flaw respect to filters which, under certain conditions, simply don’t work.
Negative critics have been reporting about this. Yet, solving this issue doesn’t seem to be among their plans. Maybe this is because they rely too much on Ruby Gem and its responsiveness, and the expertise of all users when it turns to create solutions that simply should already available.
With Nessus by Tenable Network Security, we have a totally different picture: a sexy, fully functional and customizable interface, with an intuitive design that runs without problems or complications what the user really needs, without beating around the bush to create solutions or add-ons to use the tool according to the company’s needs.
Although NeXpose by Rapid7, is already preconfigured with a considerable number of policies to start scanning, it also presents complications to handling exceptions, and they do not scale well. So, you can spend precious time to set and establish policies before founding the ideal combination of permissions and restrictions with multiple users. And this is repeated when giving access and control to multiple users, which must be individually done before you can do anything with the tool.
On the contrary, Nessus by Tenable Network Security provides simplicity and efficiency, and allows the users to set their own access, security and scanning policies from the very beginning and without taking a long time for doing so. This avoids conflicts when handling exceptions. Once policies are loaded, the tool runs smoothly and regardless the amount or type of privileges handled by each user.
Additionally, NeXpose by Rapid7 also consumes lots of bandwidth among console and scanning engines when making encryption, which makes physical servers to constantly collapse. Similarly, it presents many problems to read the OS fingerprints, which together with all the above, results in anything but efficiency and better use of resources.
Nessus by Tenable Network Security does not interfere with machine resources and, to avoid making it collapse, incorporates Agents hosted on the server that make smoother the scanner, which helps conducting parallel several scans without taking the devices’ resources and making the most from their particular characteristics.
Last, but not less important, we bring back our new girl’s bodyguard, Mr. Metasploit. Introduced by NeXpose by Rapid7 as a complementary tool in charge of finding vulnerabilities and exploiting them for good purposes, the truth is Metasploit it is a double-edged sword that, on the wrong hands, may jeopardize the company’s security… Precisely what you want to protect the most with the acquisition of Vulnerability Management solutions.
Metasploit was created to exploit vulnerabilities on remote devices, i.e., in its deepest essence, it can be used as malicious code. And there’s much literature circulating on The Net about second intentions of third parties with such powerful tools freely flowing through your networks, exposing yourself to unnecessary risks if you open the front door to your systems.
Security is a highly-valued asset that should be trusted only to experts. Nessus by Tenable Network Security knows it better and works hard to preserve it.
That’s why Nessus by Tenable Network Security falls back on its own resources to guarantee your security. Companies like Catskill Hudson Bank, Crosskey Banking Solutions, McKesson, Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc., Auckland University of Technology and many others with the highest profiles know this and have trusted in Nessus by Tenable Network Security for more than fifteen years during which its achievements and efforts, have always been recognized with the highest recommendations. So, why to conduct new experiments?
Just as you do not open your front door to strangers, keep your distance and check on who you trust the security of your company.
All in all, let’s put everything in its place: NeXpose by Rapid7 is a proposal undeniably attractive, even though it presents some weaknesses. But also, it represents an alternative point of view regarding Vulnerability Management that gives good results.
However, larger businesses still prefer the solidity of Nessus by Tenable Network Security over the new approach of Nexpose by Rapid7 for obvious reasons: Strength, experience, and even for monetary reasons. Also, there are many companies that have gone a step further and have hired both tools to combine them and take advantage on their own behalf.
That’s why when speaking about Network Security, Nessus by Tenable Network Security is THE number one reference worldwide, and that’s not for free. Its solidity is now and always the best choice among so much innovation, even when there will always be space for more things to learn and add.
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