Combat Zero-day Exploits Before It’s Too Late

Organizations now rely on an increasing number of third-party software, hardware and firmware programs to run their business. Salesforce, for example, uses over 3,000 third-party SaaS providers alone. 

“Third-party risk is something that’s very important for us to figure out. And it’s a little bit scary because we can’t manage those risks directly. It’s not our own problem to solve,” said Brad Arkin, Salesforce EVP, Chief Trust Officer.

As zero-day vulnerabilities are those that are unknown, and therefore go unaddressed, there are no existing patches and no time to create them before the the vulnerabilities are exploited. This makes it difficult for chief information security officers (CISOs) and their teams to focus on uncovering both internal vulnerabilities and third-party vendor risks.

Here we explore best practices to manage third-party risks, combat zero-day exploits and safeguard organizations against these elusive and dangerous threats.

As the risk of third-party vulnerabilities continues to escalate alongside the rise of zero-day exploits, understanding the lifecycle of these zero-day vulnerabilities—and implementing comprehensive defense mechanisms—are imperatives for CISOs and their teams if they are to effectively mitigate cyber risks and protect their organizations from these unseen dangers.