Zero day attacks, also known as zero day exploits, are defined as an exploitation of any online software or company that occurs before the breach in security is announced. The name is a fitting description, as it means to relay the fact that this security threat has accessed confidential information within an incredibly short time frame of the weakness being discovered. In most cases, these attacks, commonly performed by virus or malware software, are informed of the weakness by some unknown source. While corrections of these weakness are fixed relatively quickly, the sophistication of malware programs are still able to exploit the private information that was accessed (“What is Zero Day Exploit,” 2017).
There are multiple ways in which companies attempt to prevent zero day attacks. Because of the speed of the attack, the most effective method of protection is by implementing a pattern recognition system. The most common methods of protection include techniques that are either statistical-based, signature-based, behavior-based, or hybrid detection-based. First, statistical-based techniques focus on noting the normal behavior of a system. When that normal behavior changes to something unrecognized, the system marks this behavior as a threat. This method is highly effective in that it is commonly able to note the aberrant behavior early and shut down the system before any malware coding can be implemented. Second, signature-based techniques are most effective when detecting malware from common sources. It is able to identify the content of the malware as previously detected, and prevent its influence. Third, behavior-based techniques function by noting anything that appears to be abnormal behavior, leading to early restriction of access. Lastly, hybrid-based techniques are any combination of the three previous types.
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While these systems are very likely to report malware risk when none exists, it is much more beneficial in the long-term to occasionally block harmless behavior than to allow malware into a system even once (Hammarberg, 2014).
- Hammarberg, D. (2014). The Best Defenses Against Zero-day Exploits for Various-sized Organizations. SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
- “What is Zero Day Exploit?” 2017. Usa.kaspersky.com, usa.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/zero-day-exploit.
