The SANS Consensus Audit Guidelines (CAG) is a compliance standard that specifies 20 "control points" that have been identified through a consensus of federal and private industry security professionals.
A detailed technical paper is available for download which discusses how VSI's combination of scanning, configuration auditing, log analysis and passive network monitoring can be leveraged to comply with the CAG recommendations.
Specifically, VSI can help in the following areas:
Active scanning, patch auditing, passive network monitoring and process accounting help monitor authorized and unauthorized software and devices.
Active, passive and credentialed vulnerability scanning provides continuous and accurate monitoring for new security issues.
Configuration auditing of applications, desktops and operating systems can be performed against a wide variety of government and commercial standards.
Network and intranet perimeters can be monitored and correlated by aggregating logs from NIDS, firewalls, DMZ servers and netflow.
Custom web applications can be audited with Nessus's web application tests and logs from the applications can be monitored for abuse. Custom applications can also undergo rigorous configuration audits of the OS, application and SQL database with Nessus.
All user accounts and user activity can be strictly audited and monitored for abuse and suspicious activity.
Anti-virus software can be audited to ensure it is working correctly. Logs from desktop, email, NIDS, gateway devices and "blacklisted" sites can be correlated for a complete view of your malware exposure.
Full log searches as well as complete configuration audits can be used to accelerate your incident response efforts.
Unauthorized wireless access points as well as desktops with incorrect wireless SSIDs can be identified.