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Cybersecurity

‘Zero-Day’ Hacks Hit Record in 2021, Google Researchers Say

  • More than twice the number of software flaws detected in 2020
  • Researchers struggling to learn how hackers spy on phones
Updated on

After a year dominated by high-profile ransomware attacks and supply chain compromises, researchers from Alphabet Inc.’s Google have identified another ignominious cyber milepost for 2021: a record number of “zero-day” exploits.

A zero-day exploit is a previously unknown bug which leaves software vendors exactly zero days to secure it. That makes the technology in question particularly valuable to hackers -- and a nightmare for cybersecurity professionals.