Stealthcare Clients Credit Early Warning for Blocking Ransomware Attack that Shutdown Atlanta

Cleveland, Ohio, April 03, 2018 -- A month before a recent cyberattack crippled Atlanta, Georgia, Stealthcare’s proprietary Threat Intelligence Platform Zero Day Live warned clients of the impending ransomware attack that locked the city’s computers and halted nearly all municipal services.

On March 22, Atlanta was hit by the Samas ransomware, also known as SamSam or MSIL, that quickly locked out users and encrypted city computer hard drives leading to the shutdown of day-to-day functions and civic services. Unlike most ransomware, Samas and its variants self-propagate making them particularly devastating.


“Fortunately, our clients had the intelligence about this ransomware attack well in advance,” said Jeremy Samide, Stealthcare CEO and internationally-renowned cybersecurity expert. “We gave them the solution they needed to circumvent the attack.”

Zero Day Live provides 360-degree advance visibility into cyber threats with a concentration from sourced intelligence and, unlike competing cybersecurity products, this platform draws on enhanced analytics to create a unique cyber fingerprint of a client organization, filtering only the most timely, relevant and contextual threats that impact the operation.

Stealthcare has predicted previous major cyberattacks, including the WannaCry ransomware, targeting Microsoft Windows machines, attacks against the Democratic and Republican National Committees and the Dyn Cyberattack that took down most of the large content providers on the Eastern seaboard.

“Our Zero Day Live customers took action based on our advance intelligence and were completely prepared to fend off the attack,” Samide said, adding, “Our proprietary platform and intelligence is of great value to customers who retain Stealthcare to protect their organizations from cyberattacks. The actionable threat intelligence we provide in the ongoing cyberwar creates a competitive advantage for every enterprise we serve.” 

According to Samide, “Companies and governments continue to be surprised by ransomware and other cyberattacks thinking it won’t happen to them. Organizations of all sizes need to take the gloves off, refocus and think outside the box in this asymmetric cyberwar. There are economically viable solutions for organizations of every size that can dramatically reduce your cyber risk.” 

He added, “Many companies are attracted to the latest products with sexy marketing built on a lot of hype that fails to address the real issues or solve the problem within the organization. The allure of dashboards with lots of blinking lights, graphs that don’t have much context and thermal heat maps covering only a marginal percentage of cybercrimes that have little relevance to their organization. Conversely Zero Day Live anticipates threats and gives our customers the tools they need to effectively prevent cyber threats.”

Commenting on emerging cyber threats, Samide noted, “A US response to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, tariffs imposed against China, and pressure to reduce North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are all expected to spark retaliation, which is sure to include a cyber component that impacts all of us. Notwithstanding, our Zero Day Live, platform offers the functionality needed to dramatically reduce an organization’s current cyber risk through intelligence, innovation and integration.”   

Samide, together with economist and terrorism expert Loretta Napoleoni, recently conducted intelligence on state-sponsored cyberattacks with portions of his findings appearing in her latest book: North Korea: The Country We Love To Hate.

Jeremy Samide is available for media interviews and to speak on cybersecurity issues and cybersecurity threat intelligence. 

About Stealthcare
Stealthcare is a research-based, solutions-focused cybersecurity firm providing turnkey solutions offering a unique cyber threat intelligence platform called Zero Day Live as well as cyber risk and advisory services.  Stealthcare is headquartered in Cleveland with offices in Los Angeles and Toronto.

https://stealthcare.com/

Dick Pirozzolo
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