According to a recent report by Mandiant, a leading information security company, hackers exploited 55 zero-day vulnerabilities in 2022. Zero-day vulnerabilities refer to security flaws in software that are publicly disclosed or exploited before the company responsible for patching it is aware of the issue. Due to the lack of protections or firewalls in place, hackers often take advantage of these vulnerabilities to carry out attacks.
The report by Mandiant found that the three largest technology vendors in the world, Microsoft, Google, and Apple, were the most commonly exploited vendors for the third year in a row, with 18, 10, and 9 zero-day vulnerabilities respectively. The most frequently affected product types were operating systems (19), browsers (11), security, IT, and network management products (10), and mobile operating systems (6).
Interestingly, the report revealed that desktop operating systems were most exploited, with 19 zero-day vulnerabilities identified. Windows was the most affected, with 15 zero-day flaws, followed by macOS with four. In the case of mobile operating systems, 5 zero-day vulnerabilities were exploited in iOS and one in Android.
The report also highlights that China was the country that exploited the most zero-day vulnerabilities in 2022, followed by North Korea and Russia.
While the number of zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in 2022 decreased from the previous year, the report indicates that these kinds of exploits will likely continue. The report recommends that organizations take proactive measures to address these vulnerabilities, such as implementing security patches and conducting regular vulnerability assessments.
Recently, Microsoft fixed a critical zero-day issue in Outlook that had been exploited by a hacker group to attack a number of European government and military organizations in 2022. It is important for organizations to remain vigilant and take necessary precautions to prevent potential zero-day vulnerabilities from being exploited by cybercriminals.
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(Source)
