In today’s threat landscape, vulnerabilities aren’t just footnotes in the security playbook; they can be used by cybercriminals to stage major exploits. Hackers take advantage of vulnerabilities to deploy ransomware, steal data, or gain systemic control of systems within hours of discovery. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, almost 160 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) were exploited, nearly 30% within 24 hours of becoming public.
This is why defense-in-depth is more vital than ever in 2025. Defense-in-depth is a security strategy that assumes experiencing a breach is inevitable and layers multiple defensive controls to detect, contain, and recover from threats at every level of your environment.
Let’s explore the 6 core security layers every business needs to defend against this year’s most critical CVEs and how to make these defenses actionable.
1) Patch Management
Companies need to apply cumulative updates from Microsoft regularly to patch vulnerabilities. These updates should include those for Common Log File System (CLFS), Ancillary Function Driver (AFD), Desktop Windows Manager (DWM), and Windows Sockets API (WinSock). Fortinet appliances should also be patched and any Android devices need to be updated.
How ProActive Helps:
- Patch Service Level Agreement (SLA) dashboards and automated workflows
- Configuration Management Database (CMDB)-based vulnerability scanning
- Chrome patch enforcement
2) Network Segmentation
Network segmentation divides the network into smaller pieces to Isolate high-risk devices until they can be patched. Companies should segment bring-your-own-device (BYOD) endpoints and devices used by contractors. Applying Zero Trust access policies is a must in today’s threat landscape.
How ProActive Helps:
- Network risk assessments
- Conditional access
- Network Access Control (NAC) or Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) enforcement
3) Privilege Hardening
For privilege hardening, companies must remove local admin rights and enforce multifactor authentication (MFA). Privileged access management (PAM) can be supported using just-in-time (JIT) privileged access control.
How ProActive Helps:
- PAM tools and audits
- Credential misuse alerts
- JIT orchestration
4) Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Tuning
EDR should be tuned to detect heap corruption and process injection attacks. Companies must monitor Fortinet and Chrome behaviors to prevent attacks on endpoints and respond to them quickly when they do happen.
How ProActive Helps:
- Custom CVE detection rules
- Behavioral monitoring
- Native EDR integrations
5) Backup and Resilience
Backup and resilience are essential for preventing data loss and outages caused by security exploits. To ensure data resilience, organizations should maintain air-gapped backups. Restore SLAs need to be tested regularly to make sure that recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs) are being met.
How ProActive Helps:
- RPO/RTO dashboards
- Backup verification
- Ransomware recovery playbooks
6) Threat Detection and Logging
To detect threats and keep records for audits, businesses need to monitor system logs, crash reports, and Windows events. Companies should be able to correlate behavior across systems.
How ProActive Helps:
- Security Information and Event Management/Extended Detection and Response (SIEM/XDR) integration
- ThreatLens CVE detection
- Full attack chain visibility
Secure by Design, Resilient by Default
The attacks in the first quarter of 2025, especially those that occurred in May, show just how fast threat actors weaponize vulnerabilities. From zero-day Fortinet exploits to chained Windows privilege escalations, no organization is immune. With the right layered defenses; however, you can shift from reactive firefighting to proactive prevention.
Is your environment prepared?
Let ProActive Solutions assess your infrastructure. Our CVE readiness evaluation will score your patch hygiene, segmentation design, EDR effectiveness, and recovery capabilities so you're never caught off guard.
Don’t wait for your company to experience an exploit attack before you act. Schedule a Risk Assessment from ProActive Solutions today.
