--- sourceDocument: australia Combined Product Files sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/delta-zurich-australia Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - australia Combined Product Files ft:clusterId : - delta3az bundleId : - delta3az --- # Combined Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) release notes for upgrades from Zurich to Australia # Combined Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) release notes for upgrades from Zurich to Australia {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Australia Updated October 8, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 27 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Combined Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) Release Notes for Upgrades from Zurich to Australia These release notes consolidate all Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) updates from the Zurich release through the Australia release to assist ServiceNow customers in upgrading and leveraging USEM effectively. USEM introduces a unified architecture to improve performance, scalability, and streamline vulnerability management workflows across host, application, container, and configuration compliance domains. Show full answer Show less The Australia release is a major upgrade that also ushers in the new AI-native experience under the ServiceNow Otto brand, replacing Now Assist for Vulnerability Response. USEM is available to customers entitled to Vulnerability Response and requires migration guidance and tools to minimize risks during upgrade. ## Key Features * **Unified Architecture and Integrations:** Consolidation of Microsoft Defender plugins into a single integration supporting container image vulnerabilities, plus enhancements to Qualys, Tenable.io, GitHub Secret Scanning, AWS Inspector, AWS Security Hub, Wiz, Invicti Platform, and others. * **Security Exposure Management Workspace:** Centralized platform for all security personas with comprehensive views for findings, remediation, approvals, and integration monitoring, reducing manual effort and accelerating workflows. * **AI-Powered Insights and Automation:** Now Assist generative AI provides contextual summaries, actionable recommendations, and AI-driven approval recommendations, enhancing prioritization and decision-making in vulnerability and exception management. * **Improved Remediation and Risk Management:** Features like remediation task rule execution modes, automated risk rating roll-down from vulnerability assessments, dynamic remediation target date recalculation, and bulk risk rating modifications improve accuracy and efficiency. * **Exception Management Enhancements:** Flexible workflows for exception requests and approvals, bulk processing capabilities, and enriched approval records with vulnerability intelligence tiles aid compliance and faster approvals. * **Streamlined Administration:** Administration console within the Security Exposure Management Workspace allows centralized configuration of assignment and classification rules, approval workflows, security tags, watchdogs, background jobs, and advanced system settings. * **Cloud and AI Security Exposure Management:** Cloud Exposure View consolidates cloud security findings across vendors. AI Security Exposure Management extends vulnerability tracking and remediation to AI assets, leveraging specific integrations like Cisco AI Defense and Palo Alto Prisma AIRS. * **Integration and Data Handling Enhancements:** JDBC connectivity for Microsoft SCCM data ingestion reduces firewall requirements; support for deploying multiple patches across collections/groups for SCCM and HCL BigFix; enriched data fields for better visibility. ## Important Changes and Considerations * Now Assist for Vulnerability Response is deprecated and replaced by ServiceNow Otto; existing entitlements remain unchanged. * Risk rating changes are no longer part of exception or deferral requests dialogs; instead, use dedicated risk modification workflows. * The ITSM Advanced plugin is required to use Change Management options in the Remediation view. * Migrating to USEM should be done using the Migration Assistant update set and following migration guidance to ensure compatibility and successful data mapping. * Deferred migration option is available for customers not ready to upgrade immediately. ## Activation and Requirements Unified Security Exposure Management is available from the ServiceNow Store. Customers should request installation via the store and confirm entitlement to Vulnerability Response. No new browser, accessibility, or localization requirements are introduced between Zurich and Australia releases. ## Expected Outcomes for ServiceNow Customers * Improved visibility and centralized management of security exposures across hosts, applications, containers, cloud, and AI assets. * Enhanced productivity through AI-driven insights, recommendations, and automation that reduce manual effort in prioritization, remediation, and approval workflows. * Greater scalability and performance with unified data ingestion and processing from multiple third-party security tools and cloud providers. * Streamlined administration enabling security and vulnerability managers to configure workflows, rules, roles, and integrations efficiently within a single workspace. * Better risk management and compliance tracking supported by advanced risk calculators, exception management enhancements, and integration with early warning threat intelligence. * Flexible patch deployment aligned with organizational change management processes, including bulk deployments via Microsoft SCCM and HCL BigFix integrations. Consolidated page of all release notes for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) from Zurich to Australia. ## How to use this page To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Zurich to Australia. Tip: If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release." ## Important information for upgrading Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) to Australia Before you upgrade to Australia, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__2} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | Upgrade information : Starting with Australia Patch 5, Now Assist for Vulnerability Response is being prepared for future deprecation. It will be hidden and no longer installed on new instances but will continue to be supported. For details, see the [Deprecation Process \[KB0867184\]](https://support.servicenow.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0867184) article in the Now Support Knowledge Base. ServiceNow Otto® is the new AI experience brand. This change is reflected in the name of ServiceNow products, including the Now Assist for Vulnerability Response product name, which will be replaced with ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management. Your product entitlements remain unchanged. Check your entitlements to determine your access to specific features. To access the new AI native experience in the Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) workspace, you must upgrade to the Australia release. [ServiceNow product tiers](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=ai-native-sku-overview&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : The ServiceNow AI Platform now brings you a new AI experience with three licensing tiers available: * Foundation: AI basics to deliver insights * Advanced: AI to boost productivity across relevant use cases * Prime: Act autonomously with all AI assets, and create your own Depending on your license, you will have access to certain application features, generative AI skills, agentic workflows, and AI agents. Unified Security Exposure Management is available to all customers who are entitled to Vulnerability Response. Migrating to USEM is a major upgrade that introduces a unified architecture for improved performance, scalability, and streamlined workflows. Before upgrading, leverage the Migration assistant for Unified Security Exposure Management that is available as an update set. See the [Migration Guidance to Unified Security Exposure Management \[KB2556844\]](https://support.servicenow.com/kb?sys_kb_id=8652717893a8ba94f538fb2d6cba1078&id=kb_article_view) Knowledge Base article for more information. This tool provides a guided experience for plugin installation, data mapping, rule migration, and post-migration validation, reducing risk and manual effort. Ensure that all integrations and workflows are reviewed for compatibility before initiating migration. For more information, see [Migrating to USEM](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=migrating-to-usem&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) and [Migrate to USEM](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=migrate-to-usem&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US). | [ ] ## New features Between your current release family and Australia, new features were introduced for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM). {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__8} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | [Remediation task rule execution mode](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-grouping-multiple-findings-remediation-tasks-processing&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : You can now choose how remediation task rules are evaluated during ingestion. The new Match First execution mode evaluates rules sequentially and applies only the first matching rule, assigning each finding to exactly one remediation task. The default Match All mode continues to evaluate all applicable rules. [Unified Microsoft Defender Integration for Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=ms-defender-sem&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : The Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Defender Threat and Vulnerability Management (MS TVM) plugins are now consolidated into a single plugin: Microsoft Defender Integration for Security Exposure Management. This consolidation deprecates the standalone Microsoft Defender for Cloud plugin. The unified plugin also introduces container image vulnerability ingestion from Microsoft Defender for Cloud, creating Container Vulnerable Items on your instance. A guided migration path is available to transfer existing data from the deprecated applications to the unified plugin. [GitHub Application Vulnerability Integration -- Generic secrets support](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=github-vuln-integration&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : The GitHub Secret Scanning Integration now imports generic secrets in addition to standard secrets from your GitHub repositories. A new Manage generic secrets in ServiceNow configuration option lets you control whether generic secrets are ingested. Imported secrets are mapped to Application Vulnerable Items (AVIs) with the scan type Secret, while generic secrets are mapped with the scan type Generic Secret. [Optimized Tenable.io Compliance Results ingestion](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=tenable-io-integrations-list&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Starting with v 6.1.3, the Tenable.io Compliance Results Integration is replaced by the Tenable.io Fixed Compliance Results Integration and Tenable.io Open Compliance Results Integration. Compliance results are now imported based on their status, optimizing ingestion performance and scalability for environments with large volumes of compliance data while keeping remediation and compliance tracking aligned with the current state of findings. [Improved vulnerability assessment workflows](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=vr-ws-vuln-assessment&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : * CI filtering for vulnerability assessments: You can now filter which configuration items are included in a vulnerability assessment using a condition builder. * Business Application population on AVITs: AVITs created from SBOM assessment results now include Business Application information, helping you understand application impact and prioritize remediation. * Priority roll‑down from vulnerability assessments: Updates to the priority of a vulnerability assessment now automatically roll down to associated VITs and AVITs, ensuring consistent prioritization based on the highest severity. [Enhanced Compensatory controls](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=requesting-approving-risk-reduction&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : When new vulnerable items are ingested and associated with a remediation task that already has an approved compensating control, the reduced risk rating is now automatically inherited by those new vulnerable items. [Qualys Integration -- API enhancements](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=qualys-rest-messages-cc&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Qualys Integration has been upgraded to support newer Qualys API versions across Host Detection, Host List, Knowledgebase, PC Controls, PC Policies, and PCRS integrations. The integrations now ingest additional data fields, including vulnerability detection source, authentication privilege status, active status for controls and policies, and cloud metadata, giving you better visibility into your vulnerability and compliance data. Use the new `posture_api_version` integration instance parameter to choose between the default v2.0 APIs or the newer v5.0 streaming APIs for the PCRS Policy Host and PCRS Test Results integrations. [Enhanced security exposure management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-workspace-user-interface&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Introduced Security Exposure Management Workspace for all security personas, providing a centralized platform for managing security exposures. It includes the following views: * Findings view: Comprehensive filtering, dashboard creation, and visualization controls enable efficient analysis and prioritization. * Remediation view: Multiple work modes (tasks, findings, assets) facilitate effective remediation strategies. * Approval view: The Exception Management UI now provides enhanced insights directly within the Change Approval record, enabling approvers to make informed decisions without navigating to related records. Additionally, the Approver landing page has been redesigned with an improved table view and additional columns, delivering better visibility and context for all findings. These enhancements streamline the approval workflow, reduce manual effort, and accelerate decision-making for exception requests. [Streamlined administration](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-administration-console&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Introduced Administration console to enable one-stop configuration for all Unified Security Exposure Management applications, including assignment rules, classification rules, and remediation targets. It provides consistent workflows across Vulnerability Response, Application Vulnerability Response, Container Vulnerability Response, and Configuration Compliance applications. [Centralised Approval Experience via Employee Service Center](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=employee-center-vr-overview&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : The Employee Service Center ESC now provides a standardized approval experience for Business Unit Heads, Service Owners, and IT Heads who may not regularly access the USEM platform. This enhancement ensures that vulnerability-related approvals can be managed from a single, central location, improving efficiency and transparency. [Configure approval workflow with unified Approval Rules](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-approval-rules-overiew&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : The Approval Rules now provide a standardized way to configure approval workflows across multiple findings and remediation task tables in Security Exposure Management. Administrators can now define approval conditions, select applicable tables, and configure multi‑level approvers through a single, unified interface. [Cloud Exposure view](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=vr-cloud-exposure-view-db&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : View and act on all your cloud-related security findings from multiple vendors across your cloud environments with the Cloud Exposure View supported by USEM. The Cloud Exposure View provides a single location for your cloud security teams to monitor your cloud security posture. [Monitor integrations](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=integrating-usem&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : USEM introduces integration monitoring capabilities within the Security Exposure Management Workspace Administration console. Administrators can now view and troubleshoot integration run statuses for installed third-party applications, ensuring better visibility and operational health. [Generate insights to prioritize findings](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-insights-skill&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : SEM Workspace uses Now Assist to bring generative AI to your dashboard. This capability helps you focus on critical risks and make informed decisions faster, improving overall security outcomes. It provides: * Contextual summaries to quickly understand your security posture * Actionable recommendations to address prioritized risks [Create custom widgets in the Visualization Library](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-create-widget&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Create and manage custom widgets in the finding view of the SEM workspace to visualize findings data that align with your organization's reporting needs. The Visualization Library lets you define widget attributes such as chart type, visualization group, and data filters, enabling you to build dashboards that highlight the insights most relevant to your teams. This flexibility helps you focus on meaningful security metrics and make data-driven decisions. [Improved remediation target date handling](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-recalculate-rt-date&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Remediation target (RT) dates now dynamically recalculate when a finding's risk rating changes. When enabled, the system recalculates the SLA from the most recent risk rating update date, preventing RT dates from being set in the past and ensuring accurate SLA tracking. [Exception management configuration](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-exp-mngmt-vr&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : * Manual and automated exception request and approval workflow: Flexible, customizable workflows streamline submission, review, and approval of exception requests. * Comprehensive exception tracking and audit trails: Detailed records of approvals, justifications, and timelines support compliance efforts and simplify regulatory reporting. Consistent remediation task management with [remediation views](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-workspaces-ui-remediation-module&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) and [centralized findings configuration](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-rules-manage-findings&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Unified task management: Supports both manual task creation and automated rule-based task generation across all Unified Security Exposure Management applications.Centralized rule definition: Enables efficient management of tasks across Vulnerability Response, Application Vulnerability Response, Container Vulnerability Response, and Configuration Compliance applications. [Advanced risk management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-vuln-calc-define-risk-rule-fields&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : Risk calculators: Introduced for all Unified Security Exposure Management applications, enabling definition of risk rules based on multiple factors and calculation mechanisms.Risk rollup calculators: Aggregate scores from findings to higher-level entities, ensuring consistent risk scoring across applications. [Generate approval recommendations with generative AI](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-approval-recommendation-skill&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US) : AI-powered recommendations for Exception and False Positive requests. Provides an on-demand recommendation to approve or reject a request using the Now Assist skill framework. The framework analyzes contextual data such as vulnerability details, risk factors, exploit availability, and related indicators. The recommendations are accessible directly from the Exception Change Approval record in the Security Exposure Management Workspace, enabling approvers to make faster, more consistent decisions while reducing the manual analysis effort. Exception Rule \& Change Approval Enhancements : * [Change Approval Creation for Exception Rule submission](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-exception-rules-overview&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US): Previously, Change Approval (CA) was created only for a few types of exception requests. Now, the Change Approval(CA) is also created during exception rule submission. This enhancement verifies consistency across exception workflows and improves traceability. * [Vulnerability Intelligence Tile on Change Approval Record](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-approval-view&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US): The Vulnerability Intelligence Tile is added to change approval records, displaying vulnerability intelligence such as CISA KEV information, Known ransomware indicators, and EPSS percentile. This tile is visible only when the Intelligence and App-Vuln NVD plugins are installed. This enhancement provides approvers with the critical threat context for informed decision-making. * [Summary Tiles on Change Approval Record](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-approval-view&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US). The Impact Tile is added in the overview tab of the Change Approval record to provide approvers with the visibility of the impacted count information such as, Impacted CIs, Total Findings, and Total Vulnerabilities on the Change Approval for a Remediation Task. This enhancement improves visibility of potential impact during approval or rejection of requests. * [Application-Based Filtering on Approvals View](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-approval-view&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US): Added filtering capability on the Approvals view by application type such as: Application vulnerabilities (AVR), Container vulnerabilities (CVR), Infra Vulnerabilities (VR), and Misconfigurations (CC). This capability enables approvers to quickly drill down and manage approvals by category. * [Reapply Assignment Rules for Deferred and Manually Assigned Items](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-reapply-assignment-rules&family=zurich&ft:locale=en-US): Introduced the ability to reapply assignment rules for Deferred items and Manually assigned items. This enhancement provides the flexibility to reassign items through the Re-evaluate action in the list view. | | Australia | [Schedule patch deployments through Change Request approval](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=vr-ws-patch-schedule-change-request&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Route patch deployments scheduled from remediation tasks through Change Request approval for Microsoft SCCM and HCL BigFix integrations. This lets you align patch deployment for critical vulnerabilities with your organization's change management approval process, and optionally deploy the patch automatically once the change is approved. [Modify risk rating in bulk](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-modify-risk&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Vulnerability Admins can now modify risk rating directly on individual or bulk findings across host, application, or container vulnerable item, or on a remediation task without an approval workflow. Remediation Owners can also modify risk ratings, with changes routed through a change approval process. Associating a compensating control with the change is optional for all roles. [SSVC decision values roll up from CVEs to third-party entries](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=nvd-ssvc-enrichment&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : USEM rolls up the Exploitation, Automatable, and Technical Impact SSVC (Stakeholder-Specific Vulnerability Categorization) values from CVE entries to the corresponding third-party entry (TPE) records. Changes to these values automatically trigger a risk score recalculation when the TPE risk calculator uses one or more of them. [Automatic re-evaluation of remediation tasks on Preferred solution change](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-grouping-multiple-findings-remediation-tasks-processing&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Remediation tasks can now automatically re-evaluate findings when their Preferred solution changes, so items are regrouped into the appropriate remediation task without manual intervention. This helps keep remediation tasks accurate and reduces manual cleanup. [Automatically create vulnerable items and application vulnerable items during assessment](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=vr-va-ws-cve-exposure-assessment-api&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Vulnerability assessments now support an Auto-create VITs/AVITs option that automatically creates vulnerable items and application vulnerable items for their affected configuration items and products, removing the need for a separate manual create step. The new CVE Exposure Assessment REST API lets external systems set this option when creating a vulnerability assessment record, or trigger a CVE exposure assessment independently. [Deploy multiple patches to multiple collections with Microsoft SCCM](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=mspatch-integration&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Deploy more than one patch to more than one collection in a single deployment, instead of one patch to one collection at a time. When you select more than one patch for a deployment, the integration automatically creates a Software Update Group in Microsoft SCCM to bundle the patches. [Deploy multiple patches to multiple computer groups with HCL BigFix](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=vr-bigfix-integration&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Deploy more than one patch to more than one computer group in a single deployment, instead of one patch to one computer group at a time. [NVD integration enriches CVEs with SSVC decision data](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=nvd-ssvc-enrichment&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : USEM enriches CVE entries with Stakeholder-Specific Vulnerability Categorization (SSVC) decision values from the National Vulnerability Database (NVD), including Exploitation, Automatable, and Technical Impact. Use these additional risk signals to analyze vulnerabilities and prioritize remediation. [Enhancements to ServiceNow Otto for Unified Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-review-vulnerability-exposure-data&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : USEM was enhanced and updated in the Australia release to support the new AI native experience. * Links to Records: Select the counts and findings in the Security Exposure 360 output to link you directly to the underlying vulnerable item (VITs) and records in your instance. * Suggested follow-up questions: Follow-up questions are provided that help you drill down. [Fix Intelligence for Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=fix-intel-for-usem-landing&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Fix Intelligence for Security Exposure Management is a new application that enriches your host findings with normalized fix information from Armis Centrix™ for Vulnerability Prioritization and Remediation (ViPR). Detections are de-duplicated into Fix records that are linked to the findings and assets each fix resolves, with a rolled-up risk score per fix. Your team can remediate by fix instead of one finding at a time. Prioritize fixes from the Fix Intelligence tab, the Findings View, and the Remediation View, and group the findings that share a fix into a single remediation task. In this release, fixes are identified for host vulnerabilities from Qualys, Rapid7, Tenable.io, Wiz, and Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management. [Enhancements to the Vulnerability Response Integration with Wiz Test Results Integration](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=wiz-test-result-tab-filters&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Enhancements to the Wiz integration that imports cloud configuration findings as Test Results in Configuration Compliance. Configuration issues related to AI assets, such as AI models and agents are routed into AI security exposure management tables (AI posture findings). This enhancement helps with better visibility within AI Control Tower and for any AI-specific remediation workflows to be added in the future. The 'Send AI security findings to AI security exposure management' configuration setting has been added to the Wiz Test Results integration configuration page. This setting routes AI security findings into AI security exposure management. [View impacted findings in exception rule approvals](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-exception-rules-overview&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Use the Impacted findings metric in the approval form's Overview tab to assess the scope and impact of an exception rule before approval. The metric displays the number of existing findings that match the rule's conditions. The impacted findings count is also included in exception rule approval emails, allowing you to make informed approval decisions without leaving your inbox. [Streamline Microsoft SCCM data ingestion with JDBC](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=mspatch-integration&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Connect to Microsoft SCCM using JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) to query the SCCM database directly for collection, device, patch update, and deployment status data. Opening a firewall port for WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) RPCs (remote procedure calls) is no longer required for these queries. A WMI connection remains required to deploy patches, because patch deployment continues to use the Microsoft SCCM API over WMI. [Enhancements to the Invicti Vulnerability Integration](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=invicti-vuln-integration&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Added the Invicti Platform Integration. Support for the Invicti Platform APIs introduces three new integration jobs that connect directly to the Invicti Platform cloud service: * Application Integration --- Imports the list of applications being scanned in Invicti Platform into your ServiceNow AI Platform® instance as discovered applications. * Scan Integration --- Pulls scan records from Invicti Platform, providing scan metadata to correlate with vulnerability findings. * Vulnerability Integration --- Imports application vulnerability findings from Invicti Platform and creates or updates application vulnerable items in Vulnerability Response in your ServiceNow AI Platform®. Enhancements to Application life-cycle management: When an application is deleted or decommissioned in Invicti Platform, your ServiceNow AI Platform® automatically deactivates the corresponding discovered application and closes all associated application vulnerable items (AVITs), keeping your vulnerability inventory accurate without manual cleanup. [Enhancements to AI Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=exploring-ai-security-exposure&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Remediation tasks are supported for the following AI Security Exposure Management findings: * AI Vulnerability Finding (AIVUL) * AI Validation Finding (AIVF) * AI Posture Finding (AIPF) You can view these findings along with other Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) findings and remediation tasks in the List module in the Security Exposure Management workspace organized by finding type. [Enhancements to Exception Management for Unified Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-exp-mngmt-vr&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : * Added bulk edit support for Risk modification requests that permit you to evaluate and process multiple vulnerable items at once. * Added Smart Assessment support to the Risk Reduction option in Request Exception workflows. [Evaluate vulnerability exposure with AI-powered analysis](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=now-assist-review-vulnerability-exposure-data&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : The Security Exposure 360 agentic workflow brings AI-powered exposure analysis to Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM). Users can now ask questions in plain language and get answers grounded in their own ServiceNow data --- across all types of findings within USEM. [AI Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=exploring-ai-security-exposure&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Vulnerability management teams can use AI Security Exposure Management to reduce the AI attack surface by efficiently remediating security exposures in AI assets.The AI Exposures dashboard provides you with a view into the critical security vulnerabilities of your AI attack surface. You have the option to use a generative AI skill to help you determine if any of the threats might be already mitigated and help you prioritize high risk exposures and defer lower risk exposures that have mitigations or guardrails already in place. AI Security Exposure Management uses imported data with the following integrations that are available in the ServiceNow® Store: * The Cisco AI Defense Integration for AI Security Exposure Management * The AI Service Graph Connector for Palo Alto Prisma AIRS * The AI Service Graph Connector for HiddenLayer * The Palo Alto Prisma AIRS Integration [Enhancements to the Microsoft Defender Integration for Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=ms-defender-sem&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Added support for certificate-based authentication in the Microsoft Threat and Vulnerability Management (TVM) integration. [Enhancements to Security Posture Control and supported applications](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=spc-install&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : * Configuration Compliance is now a supported dependency for Security Posture Control Core, expanding the policy framework for compliance-driven asset evaluation. It is installed automatically when you install Security Posture Control. * With enhancements to the asset profile framework, you might see improved coverage for service graph connector-sourced data. * Enhancements to the API Connector builder for Security Posture Control streamline the process for your custom-built connectors. You might see improvements for the request/response mapping steps. * Expanded support for additional authentication patterns when building custom API connectors. [Activate the Wiz Asset Integration and identify resource types for import](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=wiz-assets-resources-tab&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Enhancements to the Wiz integration include: * Starting with version 32.1 (USEM) and version 4.1 (non-USEM), the Asset integration is deactivated by default and is not a mandatory prerequisite for the other Wiz integration imports. If you choose to activate it, the Asset integration will retrieve assets for all resource types if you don't specify the ones you want on the Asset Integration Configuration tab. To avoid importing vulnerability data you don't need, identify only the resources (assets) that you want to import with this integration. * Resource Type is no longer a mandatory field for configuring the Vulnerability Response Integration with Wiz. You can now save Wiz configurations for the integrations without specifying a Resource Type, simplifying setup for use cases where specifying a Resource Type isn't appropriate. [Configuring lookup rules](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-lookup-rules&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : The Applies to field is added to the Rules page for Configuration (CI) lookup rule records. For third-party and ServiceNow® integrations that support both Application Vulnerability Response (AVR) and Vulnerability Response (VR) lookup rules, like the Vulnerability Response Integration with Wiz, for example, select one for a rule: * Discovered Application for Application Vulnerability Response lookup rules. * Discovered Item for Vulnerability Response lookup rules. Note: The field is left empty by default. If you leave this field empty for lookup rules that support both VR and AVR integrations, background jobs for both applications apply changes on the same set of lookup rules. This state might cause a conflict and set the reapply flag incorrectly. With this distinction set, after the respective background jobs for AVR and VR are completed, the system resets the flag only for the lookup rules for the background job that was run. [AWS Integration for Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=aws-integration-for-security-exposure-management-overview&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : The AWS Integration for Security Exposure Management supports integrations with the following AWS services: * AWS Inspector is an automated vulnerability management service that continuously scans EC2 instances, ECR container images, and Lambda functions for software vulnerabilities (CVEs) and unintended network exposure. The Vulnerability Response integration with AWS Inspector imports host and container vulnerability findings from AWS Inspector. * AWS Security Hub is a security service that is used to centralize and update security checks across AWS accounts. It provides a unified view of security alerts and compliance status by integrating with various AWS services. The Vulnerability Response integration with AWS Security Hub imports host, container vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations from AWS Security Hub. [Risk reduction requests for multiple findings](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-bulk-edit-request-exception&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : You can now submit risk reduction requests for multiple findings at once using Bulk Edit in the Security Exposure Management Workspace. This reduces manual effort and simplifies the risk acceptance workflow. [Smart Assessment support for exception requests](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-exp-mngmt-vr&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : The Request Exception option now supports Smart Assessment. When you select Request for Risk Reduction, the compensating control questionnaire takes priority and is displayed instead of the exception questionnaire, based on your exception management configuration. [Auto-close rules now run in parallel, reducing processing time for large datasets](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-auto-close-rules&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Previously, auto-close rules ran as a single sequential job. Starting with v30.3.3, the system automatically splits processing into multiple concurrent jobs based on data volume --- no configuration required. Simply enable an auto-close rule and the system handles the rest. [Deferred migration option for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM)](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=migrate-to-usem&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : If you're not ready to migrate to Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM), you can select Upgrade later button to defer the process. The Migration Assistant will be hidden from the main view but remains accessible via the Filter Navigator whenever you're ready to proceed. [Configure users and groups in Security Exposure Management Workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-users-groups-overview&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Administrators can now assign and remove product-specific roles for users and groups directly from the Security Exposure Management workspace. This workspace-based experience provides a consistent, centralized interface for controlling access across supported exposure management products. [Security tag groups and tags for organized security content](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-create-class-group-and-tags&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Administrators can now create and manage security tag groups and tags directly from the Security Exposure Management Workspace. Tags can be applied to security incidents, response tasks, vulnerable items, observables, IoCs, and security cases to attach metadata to responding records and define access controls for specific types of security content. [Watchdog configuration](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-watchdog-configure&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Administrators can now create and manage watchdogs from the Security Exposure Management Workspace. Each watchdog monitors a specified table for conditions you define, and can be configured to notify designated users or groups when those conditions are met. [Severity mapping for third-party integrations](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-configure-severity-map&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Administrators can now create and manage severity maps from the Security Exposure Management Workspace. Severity mapping normalizes source-specific severity fields from third-party integrations into the standardized severity scale used by Unified Security Exposure Management. This ensures consistent severity representation across all integrated data sources. [Background job configuration](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=vr-background-framework&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : A new Background Job Configuration tile is now available in the Other section of the Security Exposure Management Workspace Administration console. Selecting the tile opens the Background Job Configuration page providing a consistent workspace-based entry point for managing background job settings. [Advanced settings](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-advanced-settings&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Administrators can now configure advanced system-level settings from the Security Exposure Management Workspace. The Advanced Settings page provides a single location for managing behavior across exposure management, remediation workflows, compliance handling, and service impact calculations. [Bulk approval and rejection](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-approve-ex-rule-request&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Approvers can now process multiple exception requests simultaneously from a single list view, which can help with significantly reducing manual effort for high-volume approval workflows. [New KPI tiles for exception management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-unified-approval-rules-explore&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Added new KPI tiles to the Exception Management dashboard for Expiring Exceptions, Exception Extensions, and Repeated Rejections, giving approvers and managers additional visibility into exception health and lifecycle trends. [Unified Microsoft Defender Integration for Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=ms-defender-sem&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : The Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Defender Threat and Vulnerability Management (MS TVM) plugins are now consolidated into a single plugin: Microsoft Defender Integration for Security Exposure Management. This consolidation deprecates the standalone Microsoft Defender for Cloud plugin. The unified plugin also introduces container image vulnerability ingestion from Microsoft Defender for Cloud, creating Container Vulnerable Items on your instance. A guided migration path is available to transfer existing data from the deprecated applications to the unified plugin. [Optimized Tenable.io Compliance Results ingestion](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=tenableIntegration&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Starting with v 6.1.3, the Tenable.io Compliance Results Integration is replaced by the Tenable.io Fixed Compliance Results Integration and Tenable.io Open Compliance Results Integration. Compliance results are now imported based on their status, optimizing ingestion performance and scalability for environments with large volumes of compliance data while keeping remediation and compliance tracking aligned with the current state of findings. [Qualys Integration -- API enhancements](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=c_QualysVulnIntegration&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : The Qualys Vulnerability Integration has been upgraded to support newer Qualys API versions across Host Detection, Host List, Knowledgebase, PC Controls, PC Policies, and PCRS integrations. The integrations now ingest additional data fields, including vulnerability detection source, authentication privilege status, active status for controls and policies, and cloud metadata, giving you better visibility into your vulnerability and compliance data. Use the new `posture_api_version` integration instance parameter to choose between the default v2.0 APIs or the newer v5.0 streaming APIs for the PCRS Policy Host and PCRS Test Results integrations. [GitHub Application Vulnerability Integration -- Generic secrets support](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=github-vuln-integration&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : The GitHub Secret Scanning Integration now imports generic secrets in addition to standard secrets from your GitHub repositories. A new Manage generic secrets in ServiceNow configuration option lets you control whether generic secrets are ingested. Imported secrets are mapped to Application Vulnerable Items (AVIs) with the scan type, Secret, while generic secrets are mapped with the scan type, Generic Secret. | [ ] ## Changes Between your current release family and Australia, some changes were made to existing Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) features. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__14} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | Risk rating options are no longer part of exception or deferral requests : Changing a risk rating is no longer available from the Request Exception dialog, or from the Bulk Edit dialog by selecting Mitigating Control in Place as a deferral reason. Risk rating and compensating control fields have been removed from both. Use Modify risk or Request risk modification, according to your role, to change a risk rating instead for individual records or in bulk. [ITSM Advanced plugin required for change request options in the Remediation view](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-ws-CRs&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Use the Create Change and Add to existing change options in the Remediation view of the Security Exposure Management Workspace to manage remediation tasks through Change Management. These options now require the ITSM Advanced plugin to be active on your instance. If you have migrated to an ITSM AI Native SKU without ITSM Advanced, upgrade to ITSM Advanced SKU to restore access to these options. [Create remediation tasks directly from the Security Exposure Management Workspace list view](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-workspace-list-page&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : Remediation owners can now create remediation tasks directly from list views in the Security Exposure Management Workspace by selecting the Create Remediation Task action from the list toolbar in the Assigned to me and Assigned to my group views for host vulnerable items, application vulnerable items, container vulnerable items, and configuration test results. Previously, this action was available only for managers. [Improved vulnerability assessment workflows](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=vr-ws-vuln-assessment&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : * CI filtering for vulnerability assessments: You can now filter which configuration items are included in a vulnerability assessment using a condition builder. * Business Application population on AVITs: AVITs created from SBOM assessment results now include Business Application information, helping you understand application impact and prioritize remediation. * Priority roll‑down from vulnerability assessments: Updates to the priority of a vulnerability assessment now automatically roll down to associated VITs and AVITs, ensuring consistent prioritization based on the highest severity. [Remediation task rule execution mode](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sem-grouping-multiple-findings-remediation-tasks-processing&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : You can now choose how remediation task rules are evaluated during ingestion. The new Match First execution mode evaluates rules sequentially and applies only the first matching rule, assigning each finding to exactly one remediation task. The default Match All mode continues to evaluate all applicable rules. [Enhanced Compensatory controls](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=requesting-approving-risk-reduction&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) : When new vulnerable items are ingested and associated with a remediation task that already has an approved compensating control, the reduced risk rating is now automatically inherited by those new vulnerable items. | [ ] ## Removed Between your current release family and Australia, some Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) features or functionality were removed. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__20} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Deprecations Between your current release family and Australia, some Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) features or functionality were deprecated. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__26} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Activation information Review information on how to activate Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM). {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__32} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | Activation information : Install Unified Security Exposure Management by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the [ServiceNow Store](https://store.servicenow.com/sn_appstore_store.do#!/store/home) to view all the available apps, and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the [ServiceNow Store version history release notes](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=sn-store-release-notes&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US). Important: Unified Security Exposure Management is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes. | [ ] ## Additional requirements If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__38} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Browser requirements If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__44} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Accessibility information Review details on accessibility information for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM), such as specific requirements or compliance levels. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__50} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Localization information If there are specific localization considerations for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__56} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | No updates for this release. | [ ] ## Highlight information If there are specific highlight considerations for Unified Security Exposure Management (USEM) we have noted them here. {#dfrn3-unifiedsecurityexposuremanagementusem-summary__entry__62} | Release | Release notes | |-|-| | Zurich | No updates for this release. | | Australia | * Unified Security Exposure Management now integrates with Early Warning for Security Exposure Management integration to enrich Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) data with Early Warning insights. Teams can focus remediation on vulnerabilities under active or imminent exploitation. * Vulnerability management teams can use AI Security Exposure Management and supported integrations to reduce the AI attack surface by efficiently remediating security exposures in AI assets. * USEM was enhanced and updated in the Australia release to support the new AI native experience. * Administrators can manage user and group role assignments, create/update watchdogs with custom conditions, and access a centralized Advanced Settings page directly from the Security Exposure Management Workspace. This eliminates the need to navigate multiple configuration pages. * Assign tags to security incidents, response tasks, vulnerable items, observables, IoCs, and security cases to define metadata and access control all directly from the Security Exposure Management Workspace. * Third-party source severity fields are now normalized into standard ServiceNow severity values all directly in the Security Exposure Management Workspace. * Approvers can bulk approve or reject multiple requests in a single action. * The AWS Integration for Security Exposure Management supports integrations with AWS Inspector and AWS Security Hub. See [Unified Security Exposure Management](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/access?context=unified-security-exposure-management-landing-page&family=australia&ft:locale=en-US) for more information. | [ ]