Definition

A cyberattack that exploits previously known vulnerability in software or hardware.

"Zero-day" refers to the fact that the vulnerability is exploited on the same day it becomes publicly known giving developers "zero days" to fix it before attacks begin.

These vulnerabilities are particularly dangerous because there are no available patches or fixes at the time of the attack.

Defending against zero-day attacks can be challenging due to the lack of available patches.

However, organizations can mitigate the risk by implementing proactive security measures such as:

• network monitoring,
• intrusion detection systems,
• application whitelisting, and
• user education.

Additionally, security researchers and software vendors work to identify and patch vulnerabilities as quickly as possible once they are discovered to prevent zero-day attacks from occurring.