Boyd Clewis

expert panel

The challenge is in the name: Zero-day attacks don’t wait for a convenient moment. They arrive before there’s a known fix, before teams fully understand the blast radius and often before leaders have a clear answer to the most basic question: “What exactly is happening?” In that moment, an incident response plan becomes more than a document. It becomes a stress test of how well an organization can coordinate a solution and make critical decisions with limited information and zero warning. That kind of pressure can expose system and human weaknesses that routine drills miss. With exploited zero-day vulnerabilities affecting enterprise technologies reaching an all-time high in 2025, leaders must act now to strengthen weak links in the response chain: approval chains that move too slowly, communication channels that break down, and assumptions about staff, systems and partner readiness that don’t hold true. The risk isn’t limited to technical disruption: A poorly handled response can affect operations, customer trust, regulatory exposure and reputation all at once. While zero-day attacks strike without warning, it doesn’t mean organizations can’t prepare. Teams that are ready to respond aren’t built only around technical expertise. They’re trained to act decisively under uncertainty, structured to coordinate across functions and empowered to make fast, informed calls when waiting could make the situation worse. Members of the Senior Executive Cybersecurity Think Tank bring deep expertise in enterprise cybersecurity strategies, data breach prevention, risk management and modern security leadership. Below, three of them share what zero-day incidents reveal about incident response readiness and how organizations can build teams capable of withstanding the pressure.