Companies Struggle to Deal With Zero-Day Attacks

The daily drumbeat of breaches and cyber-security attacks has become overwhelming for business and IT leaders. Yet, despite all the news and information about attack methods and protection strategies, many organizations are still struggling to keep up with the risks and dangers. At the center of the problem: zero-day risks. A recently released report from CheckPoint Software Technologies, "Check Point 2015 Security Report," snaps the issue into sharp focus. It found, among other things, that an incredible uptick in zero-day attacks occurred. These were directed at both networks and mobile devices. What's more, the cost of these events is on the rise, loss of proprietary information is a growing problem, and organizations have an increasing number of high-risk applications on their networks. "Today's cyber-criminals are sophisticated and ruthless," warned Amnon Bar-Lev, president of Check Point. "They prey on the weaknesses in a network, approaching any security layer as an open invitation to try to hack it." The security report is based on collaborative research and in-depth analysis of over 300,000 hours of monitored network traffic, from more than 16,000 threat prevention gateways and 1 million smartphones.