Definition
A way to protect a vulnerable system immediately by blocking the specific attack traffic at the network or gateway level, before the underlying software flaw is actually fixed. It buys time when a real patch would take days or weeks to test and deploy, which matters because AI tools now let attackers weaponize a newly disclosed flaw within hours.
Why it matters
AI has compressed the time between a vulnerability being announced and it being exploited from an industry average of weeks to under a day, so leaders need a stop-gap defense that doesn't depend on IT's normal patch cycle.