Zero-day Attacks and Security Threats

In the modern world where everything is going digital, from our daily lives to work spaces; there exists a threat. A threat which could put our digital data at jeopardy.

Security threats are not new. Apart from the ones that are mostly unknown to security analysts and software vendors. We call them zero-day attacks. It may not sound very dangerous to you, but ask a security researcher, and he or she will tell you how hazardous these unfamiliar threats can be; especially for large-scale enterprises and sensitive organizations such as military institutes. And the amount of damage they can cause is even hard to calculate.

Every organization faces such threats, and no wonder they would because Criminals are smart and they always tend to adapt to clever techniques to steal the data. Any weak security link can be a huge opportunity for them to infiltrate the security infrastructures thus leaving the security researchers to think about the possible reasons for a breach.

Of course, detecting a zero-day attack can be as hard as finding nails in a sand, but the real challenge is to stop them before they start. One possible solution is the fast patching of software and applications. However, implementing these fixes can be delayed because of the need to triage (assess) threats, or one could simply overlook a threat in order for it to successfully take place.

According to a research, the estimated average delay in applying a patch to a vulnerable endpoint is 102 days, due to triage testing and implementation procedures. The result is a big gap, leaving the application or a software exposed to the new form of threats, and before a new patch could come and take place, chances are pretty much that the application might have been compromised somewhere by someone.

Now the question is, can we prevent zero-day attacks?

Well, no one can guarantee 100 percent protection, but maintaining good cyber hygiene can stop these attacks up to some extent. Now, this doesn’t mean that one should spend endlessly on heavy antivirus software and firewalls. However, having proactive email security solutions and educating end-users and employees can decrease the chances of your company falling victim to these notorious threats.