Risk and compliance vendor Qualys is to team up with VeriSign's iDefense managed security services arm to provide customers with enhanced protection from zero-day threats.

Under a new strategic agreement, data from the QualysGuard Vulnerability Management (VM) tool will be combined with iDefense threat intelligence to give customers the most complete view possible of the threat landscape.

By making available the iDefense Exclusives security vulnerability data through QualysGuard VM, the firms are able to offer security teams better zero-day threat protection, and enable them to prioritise patch deployments and remediation efforts, said iDefense.

Irida Xheneti, security services research analyst at IDC, argued that firms are increasingly looking for tools to help them respond to attacks in a cost-effective way by prioritising the most dangerous threats.

"Through the integration of the VeriSign iDefense security intelligence with the QualysGuard Vulnerability Management solution, organisations will be able to leverage deep security analysis of their respective environment, and have security intelligence of current threats and vulnerabilities combined with the ability to prioritise actions based on asset criticality," she said.