Don’t Let Hackers Get the Best of You

How quickly do you think it takes for a hacker to react to the disclosure of bugs and vulnerabilities? According to industry experts, the time for security professionals to react to zero-day threats and vulnerabilities might be decreasing. Is your organization prepared to act when important vulnerabilities like these are disclosed?

The Time to Respond to Threats is Decreasing

These numbers come from Palo Alto Networks, which claims in its 2022 report covering 600 incident response cases that hackers tend to start looking for vulnerabilities within 15 minutes of them being announced.

This group contains various high-profile hacks from 2021, including the Exchange Server ProxyShell and ProxyLogon threats, the Log4Shell flaws, the SonicWall zero-day flaws, and ZoHo ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus.

One example cited by Palo Alto Networks which illustrates the dire need to respond to disclosed threats comes in the form of F5’s Big-IP software. According to the agency, there were approximately 2,500 scans for vulnerabilities within the software within the first 10 hours of a vulnerability being disclosed.

How Do Hackers Gain Access to Your Business’ Network?

In terms of how hackers gain initial access to networks, you can view the breakdown below:

• Phishing attacks: 37%
• Software vulnerabilities: 31%
• Brute-force credential attacks: 9%
• Previously compromised credentials: 6%
• Insider threats: 5%
• Social engineering: 5%
• Abuse of trusted relationships and tools: 4%

What Can You Do About It?

With the time to implement patches decreasing, you need to ensure that you have a system in place to rapidly deploy fixes to your mission-critical systems. This involves having a team dedicated to keeping your IT as up-to-date as possible with the latest patches and updates. We also recommend that you have protections in place which make it harder for hackers to do their jobs, like multi-factor authentication, unified threat management, and remote monitoring services.

Work with Us to Secure Your Systems

Washington Works knows that there is a limited window to address issues of cybersecurity, and we understand that time is of the essence when critical vulnerabilities are discovered in your systems. This is why we work to patch your systems as soon as we are aware of them, and with us on your side, you can rest assured that your systems are protected and monitored as best they can be.

To learn more about how we can protect your IT infrastructure from threats, contact us today at 301-571-5040.