The characteristics of the zero-day threat are so resilient that it becomes a difficult challenge for enterprises to defend them.
Responding to a zero-day vulnerability is an unwanted distraction that security teams must address. A whitepaper titled “Vulnerability Intelligence: Do You Know Where Your Flaws Are?” released by Digital shadows states that zero-day attacks are one of the most expensive threats that are advertised on dark web cybercriminal websites or forums. During their investigation, they found out that the price of zero-day vulnerability can soar as high as USD 10 million in a few cases.
The best SecOps teams will have an effective plan of action ready to respond to any unanticipated security vulnerabilities or threats that may arise in the future. Here are a few prep-up practices that keep the enterprise prepared for zero-day threats
Also Read: Ways to Minimize False Positives in Cyber Security Space
Design an effective security incident response plan
The CISO should consider keeping a threat detection and response plan ready to deal with zero-day vulnerabilities. Maintaining an efficient action plan will help enterprises ensure minimal damage and confusion.
Preparing for the next zero-day threat involves performing a risk assessment on the IT infrastructure to identify the sensitive assets that the CISO should focus on. After that, defining the characteristics of the zero-day attack will help the systems identify the attack and gather more data to understand whether it is a real attack.
Once the system spots a security incident, the SecOps can lay down a protocol to contain the incident quickly to avoid further damage. Just curbing the attack won’t help in the long run; hence it is essential to eradicate the root cause of the attack to prevent the IT network from future similar incidents.
After the systems recover from the attack, monitoring them to confirm they are back to the same state as before the breach is crucial. Moreover, learning from the security incident is the most critical part of ensuring the infrastructure is even more resilient to address the next zero-day attack.
Patch the attack surface areas
The ITOps, DevOps, and SecOps teams should work together to develop an efficient patch management plan. It is a perfect way for enterprises to quickly patch critical assets once the vendor releases the fixes against the zero-day threats.
Also Read: Top Four Strategies for an Effective Vulnerability Management Framework
Implementing patches can unexpectedly influence the network, like lagging hardware, disabling systems, or hampering work processes. Implementing the patch is a time-consuming task because the SecOps teams have to deploy the patches and reboot the hardware to complete the implementation. Big enterprises can automate the deployment of patches to accelerate the process.
Patching the attack surface areas will not prevent zero-day attacks, but it will help to minimize the exposure to the real threats.
Evolve the strategies as per developing threats and trends
As enterprises become resilient against cyber threats, cybercriminals also evolve their strategies to infiltrate the systems. The CISOs close one vulnerability door; the cybercriminals are already looking and testing for new ways to penetrate the IT infrastructure. The security teams already have a lot of pressure to ensure that they have enough cybersecurity measures implemented consistently to keep the systems up and running. They should also consider upgrading their measures to ensure their IT network is safeguarded against all the latest cyber threats and trends.
It is nearly impossible for enterprises to gauge the next zero-day threat. But developing a contingency plan for the next zero-day attack will help minimize the risks or damage.
