Signatures are Useless ?

I was shocked by a pre-sales consultant of a vendor telling that "Signature is Useless. Today we are facing challenge from zero day attacks."....Then he further emphasized his company security solution is strong in detecting new attacks.

The vendor has a strong network optimization background and has been aggressively penetrating to security area recent years. I just hope he is not going to spread this incorrect message to too much clients.

I agree that zero-day (or even negative-days) attacks pose serious security challenge to enterprises and vendors. However, an effective and comprehensive security practice on patches or signature updates is essential part of a solid security defense.

As from Gartner, “90% of successful attacks occurred against previously known vulnerabilities where a patch or secure configuration standard was already available.”

A few vendors emphasize "too much" on new attacks, zero-day attacks, or even negative-day attacks as for their marketing and promotion purposes. Known vulnerabilities, signature's importance has never decreased.

You may be interested in this article from Juniper, about "Understanding Our Approach to Addressing Known and Unknown Vulnerabilities".

Most MNC or large enterprise has vulnerabilities subscribed or purchased. I would say it is a wise investment. There is also available managed vulnerabilities scanning services which charge is very affordable for most companies.