In a perfect world, someone would notify you as soon as it discovers a vulnerability in your system… But zero-day exploits happen in real life.
Instead, hackers approach it silently.
Doesn’t matter how safe and protected you think you are… The perseverance of cybercriminals is higher if the target company and rewards are big enough.
Also known as Zero-hour, Day-zero, or 0-Day…They are targeted attacks over unpatched vulnerabilities of code or system.
Some experts confirm its name reference the day the vulnerability becomes publicly known… Others, as “zero-day”, referring to the vendor’s unawareness of it.
Either way, they’re among the most powerful weapons hackers posses on their weaponry.
How does Zero-Day Exploits Work?
While I could explain to you every part of it… There’s just not enough time available.
We must be fast and precise when treating this kind of menace.
I’ll let the following video by Fireeye Inc. company do the work.
They consist of 30% of all malware sliding through the Internet, so it doesn’t even matter if your company security team or software providers are patching vulnerabilities all day…
There’s always a way for Zero-day Exploits.
Be aware that software is tested before release. Still, it’s never perfect.
In most real cases, exploits have gone unnoticed for years (by the good guys) but were sold to the bad ones on self-sustaining black markets for large sums of money (as much as $250,000) either to other attackers, state-sponsored actors, or software vendors.
Why would someone pay that amount for a vulnerability leakage?
Because we aren’t talking about small deals. We’re talking about something powerful enough, to take down even the tech giants we all know today (as Microsoft, to name one).
Microsoft has suffered this personally due to its predictable software maintenance: software: On the 2nd Tuesday of each month, Microsoft fixes vulnerabilities of the overall OS.
High-profile hackers know about this, so they have been targeting Zero-day attacks at a similar speed the patches are made. This is where the cycle updates happen.
And believe me, if this happens to Microsoft… It can definitely happen to your business as well.
Zero-day attacks are quick and aggressive. Their goal is to surprise and cause much damage, in the shortest span of time… Avoiding intervention from security teams.
How to Protect Yourself from Zero-Day Exploits?
There are bad news and good news for you.
Bad news first: There isn’t a 100% secure solution against Zero-day Exploits.
They exist because victims are unaware that this could happen, in the first place.
The good news is that you can highly-reduce your chance of getting attacked with advanced prevention and protection.
You aren’t fully safe at this point… So let’s start with Prevention:
A) Signature-based detection – With this ineffective system, antivirus software places a code that distinguishes the threat to block it. So, the threat has to be previously identified… Which is the opposite of what you need against Zero-day exploits.
B) Heuristics-based detection – Behavioral detection doesn’t require an exact match of the signature. Instead, it looks for suspicious parts on files. The flaw here is that it’s possible for it to fail, even confusing a legit software as a malicious one.
But how would you know?
Fortunately, the newest antivirus products are advanced enough to fight off zero-day attacks effectively. Hybrid detection is a perfect example that combines previous techniques, taking advantage of their strengths, at the same time it mitigates their weaknesses.
But for most people, this is just too complex to set-up (I understand).
Let us protect your business assets for you. 24/7 Free of Stress!
How to Recover from a Zero-Day Exploit
Now that we talk about stress… I must point something out now.
There’s a low chance to prevent zero-day attacks, so forget about saving yourself alone.
It’s even hard for us, but years of experience, emerging tactics, and advanced technologies available are making it possible. At least, recovering what was harmed it’s 100% possible.
You kept your antivirus software up-to-date. You had a firewall in place. Your employees went through all necessary cybersecurity awareness training. And yet, your company still experienced a security incident. Now, you’re left wondering: Is there something we can do?
- Content Threat Removal (CTR) – Intercept data before it reaches its destination. CTR only allows business information by re-shaping its form and discards any other hostile-looking data.
- Access Removal – Physically or remotely remove all platforms access from users who could present a potential threat. This could be an entire website shut down.
- Disaster Recovery Strategy – Were you a victim of a zero-day attack? Mitigate all possible damage through a disaster recovery strategy (on-site & cloud-based storage for data backup)
Be open to your clients… But don’t be it for cybercriminals.Keep your valuable assets where they should be with our vulnerability management support