Attacks using a zero-day vulnerability are more common and troublesome for enterprises. The threat posed by undiscovered or unfixed security flaws in software or apps is referred to as “zero-day.” Therefore, attacks that leverage zero-day flaws frequently take place without users being aware of them and may be very expensive for enterprises in terms of lost productivity, data theft, system unavailability, reputational harm, and legal action. (endpoint security)
The best form of protection is prevention when it comes to reducing your chance of being the victim of a zero-day assault. One of the most popular ways for cybercriminals to access a network of a business is through email systems that are not sufficiently secured. Therefore, it is crucial for organisations to make sure that their email system isn’t a security vulnerability! The best way to defend against zero-day attacks and other risky, expensive attacks is to implement proactive, layered email security protections & pay attention on endpoint security.
What are Zero-Day Attacks and How do They Work?
The term “zero-day attack” describes a situation in which threat actors take advantage of a vulnerability before developers have had a chance to patch it. Because only the attackers themselves are aware of zero-day assaults, they are particularly risky. Criminals can either launch an assault right once after breaking into a network or they can wait until it is most advantageous to do so.
Threat actors can launch attacks utilising zero-day vulnerabilities through a variety of methods. Once a thief has discovered a means to attack an unpatched vulnerability in a web browser or programme, they often include targeting a machine with malware. Malware often appears as an attachment or link in an email and is downloaded by users who either click on the link or file.
After being downloaded, the malware of the attacker infiltrates the files of a corporation and steals private information like social security numbers, login credentials, and passwords. Trade secrets and business strategy are both at risk. A zero-day assault will be drawn to any information that may be utilised or sold. Over 50% of all malware detected in Q3 2020 was zero-day malware, up 14% from the same period last year.
The Top 4 Strategies for Preventing Zero-Day Attacks
Zero day assaults are challenging to defend against their nature. However, there are several strategies to get ready and lessen the actual threat to your firm. Here are four recommended practises that may be used to lessen or even eliminate the threat posed by many zero day assaults.
1.Windows Defender Exploit Guard is a good choice.
Microsoft released the Windows Defender Exploit Guard with Windows 2010 and it contains a number of features that can successfully defend against zero-day attacks:
- By preventing attacks based on Office files, scripts, and emails, Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) guards against malware infiltration. ASR can enable beneficial circumstances while preventing the underlying behaviour of harmful papers. It has the ability to recognise and stop dangerous macro code, JavaScript, VBScript, and PowerShell scripts, as well as to block the execution of payloads obtained from the Internet and executable email content.
- Exploit Guard’s network defence prevents malware from connecting to a command-and-control server by blocking all outbound connections before they are utilised (C&C). Hostname and IP reputation are used to analyse outbound network traffic, and any connections to untrusted destinations are cut off.
- Controlled folder access tracks modifications made to files in protected directories by apps. Important folders may be secured and only approved apps given access. This can stop ransomware from encrypting data.
2. Utilize Future-Proof Antivirus (NGAV)
Traditional antivirus programmes are ineffective against zero-day attacks since they use file signatures to detect malware. Because the antivirus provider will swiftly update their malware database when the vulnerability is made public, antivirus will then be effective against the threat.
However, businesses must have the capacity to stop yet-unknown zero-day malware. In order to detect that a system is infected with an unidentified strand of malware, Next Generation Antivirus (NGAV) solutions use threat intelligence, behavioural analytics, which creates a behavioural baseline for a system and identifies suspicious anomalous behaviour, and machine learning code analysis. When such malware is found, NGAV is able to stop harmful processes and prevent the attack from affecting additional endpoint security.
While NGAV technology today can’t identify every zero-day malware, it can dramatically lower the likelihood that an endpoint security would be compromised by an attacker using unidentified malware.
3. Use Patch Management.
Any firm should have a patch management strategy and procedure that is coordinated with the development, IT operations, and security teams and is made apparent to every employee.
It is crucial to employ automation to manage and apply fixes in larger businesses. Using patch management tools, you may detect systems that need updates, automatically get patches from software suppliers, test the changes the patch introduces, and deploy the patch to production. This prevents the inevitable legacy system that is ignored or left behind when systems are changed and delays in patch release.
Patch management can considerably narrow the exposure window, but it cannot stop zero-day assaults. Vendors of software may provide a fix in a matter of hours or days in the event of a serious vulnerability. Prior to attackers identifying and exploiting the vulnerability in your systems, you may release patches more swiftly with the use of automated patch management.
4. Be prepared with an incident response plan
A well-organized procedure for recognising and responding to a cyberattack is provided by an incident response plan, which is beneficial for organisations of all sizes. In the event of an assault, having a specialised plan targeted towards zero-day attacks will offer you a significant edge, decrease uncertainty, and improve your chances of avoiding or minimising harm.
Follow the six steps of incident response outlined by the SANS Institute while creating your strategy. The strategy should outline:
- Perform a risk analysis to determine which assets are the most sensitive and where the security team should concentrate its efforts. Create paperwork outlining the roles, obligations, and procedures.
- Identification – specify the steps to take in order to identify a possible zero-day attack (using tools and/or operational procedures), confirm that it is in fact an attack, and determine what additional data must be gathered in order to address the danger.
- Containment refers to what efforts may be taken immediately once a security issue is discovered to stop more harm from happening and what longer-term actions can be performed to clean and restore impacted systems.
- Eradication is the process of determining the attack’s underlying cause and ensuring that precautions are taken to avoid future assaults.
- Recovery – how to restart production systems, test them, and for how long to keep an eye on them to make sure everything is back to normal.
- Lessons Learned: Conduct a retrospective no later than two weeks after the incident to examine organisational procedures and tooling and determine how to be better prepared for the next assault.
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