Security News > 2021 > May > Scans for Vulnerable Exchange Servers Started 5 Minutes After Disclosure of Flaws
Adversaries are typically quick to take advantage of newly disclosed vulnerabilities, and they started scanning for vulnerable Microsoft Exchange Servers within five minutes after Microsoft's announcement, Palo Alto Networks reveals in a new report.
Between January and March, threat actors started scanning for vulnerable systems roughly 15 minutes after new security holes were publicly disclosed, and they were three times faster when Microsoft disclosed four new bugs in Exchange Server on March 2.
For comparison, global enterprises need roughly 12 hours to identify vulnerable systems within their environments, provided that they are aware of all of their assets, Palo Alto Networks explains in their 2021 Cortex Xpanse Attack Surface Threat Report.
Adversaries are at work around the clock to identify vulnerable systems that could provide them with access to enterprise networks, the cybersecurity company says.
The monitoring of 50 million IP addresses associated with 50 global enterprises revealed that, on a typical day, such scans are performed each hour.
Ranging from insecure remote access, zero-day security issues, flaws in products such as Exchange Servers and F5 load balancers, and exposed database servers, new serious vulnerabilities are identified in global enterprise networks twice a day.