What Are Zero Day Attacks and How Can They Affect You?

These days, hacking has become a common occurrence, with cyber criminals becoming more sophisticated than ever. However, security has evolved at the same speed, keeping hackers at bay. But sometimes, hackers can find and exploit vulnerabilities in a program’s coding without the developers even knowing that there is a problem. This is what is known as a zero day attack.

The term zero day is derived from the concept that the applications development and support teams have had zero time to address or correct the vulnerability. It was a previously unknown flaw that is being exploited or manipulated by hackers.

Cyber criminals will often attack by writing malware or using malicious code in emails, common file types, or web browsers. Large companies such as Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Sony, and even the country of Iran have previously been victims of zero day attacks with criminals using third parties to infiltrate their infrastructure.

These third parties typically have prevention technology in place as well as crisis management tools with the goal of releasing a patch as quickly as possible. Zero Day attacks can typically be patched quickly, but the effects of the breach can last much longer and cost companies a lot of money in damages.

So what can you do to protect yourself? For starters, staying updated is one of the best actions to take. Make sure all of your technology is up-to-date and make sure to stay informed in case one of the products you use is affected

It is also good to practice safe habits in your daily work routine such as:

• Enabling multi factor authentication where you can
• Not giving out sensitive information unless you know who you are sending it to
• Managing permissions
• Don’t open attachments from unknown email sources
• Using strong passwords that are changed on a regular basis
• Encrypting data where you can.
• Using a reliable security provider

If you would like more information on ways your business can be protected from zero day attacks, please contact us today!