Nessus is a vulnerability scanner created in 1998 that allows users to detect vulnerabilities on Windows, Linux, and Mac systems. It uses a web interface to install, scan systems, and generate reports of identified vulnerabilities. Nessus can manage up to 50,000 hosts with a dual-core 2GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, and 30GB disk space. To use Nessus, users download it, register for an activation code, install it, create an account, and then launch scans on target IP addresses or folders. Scans check systems against policies that define what vulnerabilities to test for, such as external/internal network scans or PCI compliance. Scan results show vulnerabilities present and allow drilling into details.