Balancing Time-to-Market Is Imperative
In 2025, cybersecurity companies are going to need to balance speed to market against ensuring their solutions work properly
Key Points
- Exploited vulnerabilities are increasing while the time to exploit them is decreasing.
- Bad actors are using AI to continually cut down on the time it takes from software or patch release to vulnerability discovery.
- Most vulnerabilities are discovered in the first month and 75% are discovered within 19 days.
- Software vendors must skillfully balance their rush to get new products and patches to market with the real dilemma of not releasing products and updates before they are truly secure.
The number of exploited vulnerabilities in software continues to increase each year, while simultaneously, the time it takes bad actors to recognize and exploit those vulnerabilities is continually decreasing.
Artificial Intelligence Speeds Up Discovery
AI is significantly helping bad actors identify software vulnerabilities much sooner after they are released by software companies.
By automatically scanning software and systems, quickly identifying weak points, and analyzing vast amounts of data to uncover patterns, AI is allowing cybercriminals to discover vulnerabilities they can exploit much quicker than using traditional methods.
Most Vulnerabilities Are Discovered in the First Month
At this point in time, it is widely recognized that exploitation of a vulnerability is most likely to occur with the first month following the release of software.
Studies have shown that while the average time it takes a software company to patch a vulnerability they discover is 100 days, it only takes bad actors 19 days to recognize a full 75% of exploits in new software and patch releases.
Software Vendors Race Against the Clock
This, unfortunately, creates a scenario where software companies will naturally find themselves in a rush to patch any vulnerabilities they discover. It becomes a race against the clock to fix the vulnerability before more customers are impacted by bad actors exploiting that vulnerability.
But, can software companies move too fast? Granted, vulnerabilities should be patched as quickly as possible, but what happens if software companies move too fast and don’t take the time to ensure their new patches don’t contain even more new vulnerabilities?
Sometimes Software Patches Introduce New Vulnerabilities
While not extremely common, there have been very notable instances where software patches introduced completely new vulnerabilities. In one of the most well-known cases, the “Heartbleed Bug” patch for OpenSSL that fixed a critical vulnerability ended up allowing attackers to potentially steal sensitive information directly from a server’s memory. This type of problem with patches has also been known to happen occasionally with Windows patches as well.
Software companies typically have very rigorous testing regimens to ensure the software they release does not contain vulnerabilities and also use those same testing processes when it comes to releasing patches to fix any vulnerabilities discovered once software is out in the wild, but sometimes things get missed.
Software Vendors Must Not Rush Too Quicky In 2025
This can be especially problematic if the software company is rushing to meet a release deadline, or even worse, attempting to shore up a vulnerability that has put the company in the news. You can see how just about any software company that finds themselves on the bad side of a news story would be eager to release a patch as quickly as possible.
However, with more threat actors out there and more methods to exploit vulnerabilities than ever before, software companies are going to have to take special care in 2025 when releasing new products or patching existing ones. Nothing would be worse than addressing a high-profile vulnerability that has landed your company in the evening news than releasing a patch that then goes on to open up an entirely new set of vulnerabilities for your customers.
Deploying controls without testing, or assuming controls will continue to work in an ever-changing threat landscape is a fool’s errand, but in the rush to get product to market, cybersecurity providers and other software vendors need to remain ever mindful of this complexity.
The Bottom Line
Balancing time-to-market is just one of many factors cybersecurity and other software providers are going to need to keep in mind as they navigate the challenges of 2025.
A continuing increase is zero-day threats, meaningful AI, the importance of human risk management, the need to rely on strategic partnerships to close the skill gap, and the continued balance between regulation and innovation are all things organizations are going to need to spend time addressing as they move through 2025.
Stay tuned to this blog for more on these topics.
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