Qualys Policy Compliance Notification: Technology Support Changes for Windows 2012 R2/Windows 8.1

Summary: This is a minor change to add flexibility in expanded platform support.  There will be no downtime with this update, but you will need to make changes to policies and possibly some controls being used against Windows 2012 R2 or Windows 8.1.

Details:

Some controls in Policy Compliance require different control logic for different subversions of the OS platform.  In order to support variations that may occur in controls for Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1, we will be adding these as separate technologies within Qualys Policy Compliance.  Some users may be using the existing Windows 2012 or Windows 8 technologies in their policies and assessing these platforms.  We are in the process of building the same control set for the new technologies and plan to release these once all controls have been developed.  Our current target is February 16, 2015.  We will not make any changes prior to this date.

Active Directory controls are tied to their own technology.  Controls for Windows 2012 and Windows 2012 R2 Active Directory do not have the same variations as the local OS controls, and as such, these controls will not be in separate technologies.  To make sure it is clear, the technology will be renamed to indicate coverage of both Windows 2012 and Windows 2012 R2 controls.  There should not be an impact with this change.

Once the control development and testing is complete and published, you will need to add the new technologies to your policies and where necessary, configure controls for those target platforms.  Once released, the Windows 2012 and Windows 8 technologies will no longer be able to assess the newer versions of those platforms.

If you have any further questions regarding this upgrade, please feel free to contact Qualys Technical Support at support@qualys.com or +1 (866) 801 6161 (US and Canada) or +44 (0)1753 872102 (UK) or +33 1 41 97 35 81 (France).

We thank you for your continued support and look forward to your feedback.