The only sure way to protect against every-increasing threats is to implement a protection system that focuses on the post-vulnerability pre-exploit area in time. It all starts with a vulnerability being discovered. After this, a window of opportunity is present – during the post-vulnerability phase prior to an exploit being created – that allows proactive security solutions to update and begin protecting without knowledge of what exploits may exist. This pre-exploit time can be years, months or hours and gives security organizations time to develop counter measures against possible exploits. The window of time between vulnerability discovery and exploit development is rapidly closing. Zero-day attacks – where an exploit is released the same day as a vulnerability is discovered – are now a reality. By employing the Virtual Patch process, Dynamic Threat Protection is the world’s only framework that focuses on the post-vulnerability, pre-exploit period with the required speed and accuracy to protect against zero-day threats. And then there are the vulnerabilities that have been around for months, but aren’t perceived as a great threat. SQL Slammer, a worm with propagation speed of seconds – not days, was able to reach the entire Internet in 10 minutes. Despite the fact that the exploited vulnerability was well published months prior, SQL Slammer wreaked havoc on the Internet. Its ability to spread to new hosts was unparalleled. Whilst many organizations were able to eventually defend against the worm (by applying a patch or blocking the traffic) the attacks happened so quickly the damage was done before any reactive security measures were effective. Organizations employing Dynamic Threat Protection were success in proactively protecting against this known vulnerability – but unknown attack. The focus returns back to the post-vulnerability pre-exploit era – the only window of time where preventative measures are possible. For reasons already noted, current patching regimes and disparate point solutions don’t possess the required agility and precision to deliver proactive protection. See below the significant windows of time left exposed by manual patching and disparate point solutions. The Virtual Patch process provides a buffer of time, allowing organizations to wait until bulk updates are available, rather than having apply each individual hotfix and reboot systems. Just like preventative medicine or car maintenance, the Virtual Patch process is based on the long-accepted knowledge that routine, preventative maintenance is far superior to the ‘break/fix’ alternative. It re-defines security maintenance and allows security operations to be handled as part of a normal IT change management process, allowing more effective and more efficient resource planning and more timely response to both known and unanticipated threats. The cost, time and risk-mitigating benefits of virtual patching are enormous when compared to the current need to disrupt systems on almost a weekly basis.