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

Following a year marked by high-profile ransomware assaults and supply-chain hacks, Google researchers have uncovered another alarming cyber milepost for 2021: a record number of “zero-day” exploits. A zero-day exploit is a previously undisclosed flaw that gives software developers exactly 0 days to fix it. As a result, the technology in question is extremely lucrative to hackers – and a disaster for cyber-security experts. 

According to a report released Tuesday (April 19) by Google’s Project Zero, a team of specialist bug hunters, hackers attacked a total of 58 zero-day defects affecting key software suppliers in 2021. In 2020, there were 25 flaws, compared to 21 in 2019. Since Project Zero began tracking zero-days in 2014, this is the largest number of zero-days ever recorded. 

Ms Maddie Stone, a security researcher at Project Zero, stated in a blog post about the findings that the trend could be attributed to an enhancement in identification from companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google, who now publicly report their findings around zero-day concerns, rather than a spike in hacks. 

Hackers have utilized the attack approach in recent years to install powerful spyware on smartphones, which has then been used to spy on journalists, lawmakers, human rights activists, and others. Last year, suspected Chinese state-sponsored hackers used such vulnerabilities to compromise Microsoft Exchange serve

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