Microsoft argues that with vulnerability weaponization now measured in hours while safe enterprise remediation still takes days to weeks, the network itself has to become the compensating control plane: AI-assisted, context-aware controls that fence off vulnerable systems and cut exploit paths faster than any patch cycle can. The premise is backed by Mandiant’s time-to-exploit analysis, which put the average for vulnerabilities disclosed in 2023 at five days and counted 97 of the 138 exploited flaws as zero-days, with no patch window at all. The diagnosis is hard to argue with. The prescription, conveniently, is more Microsoft.
