While back-up, business continuity and disaster recovery can be different for every company, involving numerous strategies and tactics, there is no doubting the need for solutions to support over-arching BDR plans.
Almost daily, organizations of all sizes are getting hit with ransomware threats, for example, which puts whole systems, databases, files and more at risk.
As well, nation state attacks and unexpected weather events have prompted companies to be more prepared for down-time and quick recovery to keep their businesses up and running.
Solutions for this category can support various components of BDR plans and efforts – from supporting backup protocol when systems have been threatened or taken offline – to addressing infrastructure demands to get back up and running in the event of physical disasters or online attacks by insiders and outside malicious actors.
Today, cyber disasters inflict more business damage than natural disasters and strike more frequently.
Wipers like NotPetya, Shamoon, Destover and ransomware such as Petya, WannaCry, and LockerGoga have crippled organizations around the globe, encrypting their IT infrastructure and sending them back to manual operations until, or if, they can recover their systems.
In a cyber disaster, Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) – the distributed security system that controls user authentication and systems authorization in over 90% of the world’s medium and large organizations – is mission-critical because it’s foundational to recovering everything else on the network.
Legacy protocol for AD recovery demands a resource-intensive and error-prone process that cost organizations days or even weeks of downtime.
Semperis Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) fully automates the entire forest recovery process with just a few clicks – ensuring fast, clean, and painless restores.
Their “cyber-first” recovery approach saves millions of dollars in unnecessary business interruption.
Recovery has traditionally taken a back seat to prevention and detection for malware protection, but today – with ransomware being the leading cause of organizational IT disruption – rapid, automated restoration of sensitive systems and data is the most effective and proactive defense against corporate Armageddon.
For organizations that can’t tolerate lengthy outages or degraded service, Semperis Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) orchestrates a fully automated forest recovery process – prohibiting errors, reducing downtime to minutes instead of days or even weeks, and eliminating the risk of malware re-infection.
(Learn More. In today’s cloud-first, mobile-first world, dependency on Active Directory is rapidly growing—and so is the attack surface. How can you defend the keys to your kingdom against the backdrop of escalating attacks? Tune in to the conversation and hear from the experts. Courtesy of Semperis and YouTube. Posted on Apr 7, 2020.)
Semperis Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) Core Capabilities Include:
Advanced automation:
-
Automate and accelerate the recovery process, including rebuilding the Global Catalog, cleaning up metadata and the DNS namespace, restructuring the site topology, etc.
Clean Restore:
-
Restore AD without reintroducing rootkits and other malware in system state and bare-metal backups of infected Domain Controllers (DCs).
Anywhere Recovery:
-
Restore AD to the same or different hardware – on-premises or in the cloud.
Traditional Active Directory backup tools only address recovery from IT operational issues, where AD is affected but host servers are not.
Legacy approaches such as bare-metal recovery (BMR) carry severe underlying issues, particularly when restoring AD after a cyberattack.
For starters, BMR backups, like system state backups, contain boot files, executables, and other OS artifacts where malware can linger and re-infect restored domain controllers (DCs).
With its Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) product, Semperis introduced the only “cyber-first” approach to AD disaster recovery, purpose-built to combat today’s evolving cyber threat landscape.
Semperis ADFR’s patented technology separates AD from the underlying Windows operating system and only restores what’s needed for the server’s role as a DC, DNS server, DHCP server, etc. – virtually eliminating the risk of malware re-infection during restore.
Additionally, Semperis ADFR’s “cyber-first” capabilities empower organizations to recover AD to alternate hardware (virtual or physical) when firmware is infected.
Semperis Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) has a refreshingly transparent pricing model based on parameters such as size and complexity of the customer’s AD infrastructure.
Being a fully automated solution, Semperis ADFR removes the dependence on of the resource-intensive, error-prone AD recovery process.
The product is praised by customers for its patented technical capabilities and ease-of-use.
Semperis ADFR doesn’t require a dedicated FTE to manage the product day to day.
In fact, the product’s end-to-end automation frees up teams to allocate more focus on other aspects of business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
With a customer base that includes some of the largest organizations in the world spanning every major industry vertical, Semperis ADFR effortlessly scales to meet any requirements.
What are the dos and don’ts of recovering AD from a #cyberdisaster? @gkirkpatrick (Chief Architect at Semperis) and @GGrillen (Chief Technologist at @DXCTechnology), are sharing their expertise on May 27th at 12 pm ET.
Register Now: https://t.co/mhhFrxjEGe pic.twitter.com/TL4DcWVQKt
— Semperis (@SemperisTech) May 22, 2020
Typically, Semperis customers have a bi-annual upgrade process tied to their change management process.
Semperis provides support for later versions as well, so the upgrade cycle is very manageable.
Due to the sensitive nature of the topic, Semperis customers usually prefer to keep case studies anonymized.
However, Semperis can highlight one public study that exemplifies the success that Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) customers can expect.
As the largest air carrier in Israel, El Al Airlines transports millions of passengers each year to 180 destinations worldwide.
Maintaining systems uptime and getting passengers to their destinations on time are key to El Al’s business.
The airline searched for a solution that would maximize AD uptime and help the company meet strict, demanding SLAs.
“The Semperis platform helped El Al reach a point where we are sure that we can overcome any Active Directory outage.” – Deputy Director of Infrastructure
ADFR’s Proven Benefits Include:
-
AD recovery time reduced from 1 day to 2 hours
-
El Al Airlines meets uptime requirements and SLAs
-
Manual maintenance burden is eliminated
-
Test lab creation is automated
In today’s era of digital transformation, cyber weaponization is commonplace, and the “extinction event” is a genuine threat, especially for organizations with uptime and availability requirements.
Any prolonged downtime of AD – being the gatekeeper to critical applications and data – puts organizations at risk of losing significant revenue, and in some cases, a complete shutdown.
Using a real-world example, recent projections estimate that NotPetya costed the international shipping company, Maersk, up to 300 million dollars in losses.
It’s public knowledge that a least three of ten days were spent on manually recovering AD.
If one considers AD restoration accounting for about 30% of the entire recovery time, it’s clear how valuable automation would’ve been in this situation.
Legacy recovery approaches cost organizations unnecessary interruptions and unplanned infrastructure costs because of one fundamental issue: cybersecurity is not top of in mind.
Semperis Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) is “cyber-first” AD recovery.
Originating as broadly distributed campaigns, ransomware attacks in 2019 have evolved into highly targeted and extremely damaging network-wide infections.
Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that ransomware damages will cost the world $11.5 billion this year and $20 billion by 2021.
In addition to large enterprises, state and local governments have also become targets: 53 were reported in 2018, and at least 24 so far in 2019 including Baltimore and Atlanta.
Being the only “cyber-first” solution on the market purpose-built to recover Active Directory (AD) from cyberattacks, Semperis Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR) is postured to continue experiencing rapid adoption from organizations big and small.
Today, Semperis ADFR protects millions of identities.
The product has been adopted by customers in the Fortune 500, government, financial, healthcare, and other industries worldwide.
Semperis is accredited by Microsoft and recognized by Gartner.
Semperis is Newest Competitor in 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program
AST focuses on Homeland Security and Public Safety Breaking News, the Newest Initiatives and Hottest Technologies in Physical & IT Security, essential to meeting today’s growing security challenges.
The 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, is organized to recognize the most distinguished vendors of Physical, IT, Port Security, Law Enforcement, Border Security, First Responders, (Fire, EMT, Military, Support Services Vets, SBA, Medical Tech) as well as the Federal, State, County and Municipal Government Agencies – to acknowledge their outstanding efforts to ‘Keep our Nation Secure, One City at a Time.’
As an ‘ASTORS’ competitor, Data Theorem will be competing against the industry’s leading providers of Innovative Application Security Solutions.
Enter today to Compete in the 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland SecurityAwards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.
The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program is specifically designed to honor distinguished government and vendor solutions that deliver enhanced value, benefit and intelligence to end users in a variety of government, homeland security and public safety vertical markets.
American Security Today is pleased to announce that Deann Criswell, the NYC Emergency Management Commissioner will deliver the keynote address at the 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon Banquet in New York City.The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program highlighting the most cutting-edge and forward-thinking security solutions coming onto the market today, to ensure our readers have the information they need to stay ahead of the competition, and keep our Nation safe – one facility, street, and city at a time.
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.
Comprehensive List of Categories Include:
| Access Control/ Identification | Personal/Protective Equipment | Law Enforcement Counter Terrorism |
| Perimeter Barrier/ Deterrent System | Interagency Interdiction Operation | Cloud Computing/Storage Solution |
| Facial/IRIS Recognition | Body Worn Video Product | Cyber Security |
| Video Surveillance/VMS | Mobile Technology | Anti-Malware |
| Audio Analytics | Disaster Preparedness | ID Management |
| Thermal/Infrared Camera | Mass Notification System | Fire & Safety |
| Metal/Weapon Detection | Rescue Operations | Critical Infrastructure |
| License Plate Recognition | Detection Products | And Many Others! |
Don’t see a Direct Hit for your Product, Agency or Organization?
With the unprecedented occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus of the safety and security industries has realized the need to increase innovations to address the daily growing challenges.
As such AST aims to make sure these firms and professionals are reflected in the 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program, so we’d like to encourage you to submit appropriate categories recommendations and include COVID-19 Frontline Professionals in your Nominations to see that these Professionals, Facilities, and Vendors receive the Recognition they Deserve!
Submit your category recommendation for consideration to Michael Madsen, AST Publisher at: mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.
The 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program surpassed expectations with a record number of nominations received from industry leaders and government agencies, and drew over 200 attendees to the ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Banquet – an exclusive gourmet luncheon and networking opportunity which filled to capacity, before having to turn away late registrants.
Why the ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program?
Commissioner Bratton, one of the world’s most respected and trusted experts on risk and security issues and Executive Chairman of Teneo Risk a global advisory firm, was recognized as the ‘2019 ‘ASTORS’ Person of the Year’ for his Lifetime of Dedication and Extraordinary Leadership in Homeland Security and Public Safety.The event featured an impassioned and compelling keynote address by William J. Bratton, former police commissioner of the New York Police Department (NYPD) twice, the Boston Police Department (BPD), and former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), as he walked attendees through 50 years of American policing history, the impacts on the communities, and the evolution of critical communication capabilities in our post 9/11 landscape.
American Security Today’s comprehensive Annual Homeland Security Awards Program is organized to recognize the most distinguished vendors of physical, IT, port security, law enforcement, and first responders, in acknowledgment of their outstanding efforts to ‘Keep our Nation Secure, One City at a Time.’
Over 200 distinguished guests representing Federal, State and Local Governments, and Industry Leading Corporate Firms, gathered from across North America, Europe and the Middle East to be honored among their peers in their respective fields which included:
- The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)
- United States Marine Corps
- The Federal Protective Service (FPS)
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)
- United States Postal Inspection Service
- DHS S&T
- United States Marshals Service (USMS)
- The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Police (PAPD)
- The Department of Justice (DOJ)
- The New York State Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services (NYS DHSES)
- United States Border Patrol
- AlertMedia, Ameristar Perimeter Security, Attivo Networks, Automatic Systems, Bellevue University, BriefCam, Canon U.S.A., CornellCookson, Drone Aviation, FLIR Systems, Hanwha Techwin, HID Global, IPVideo Corp., Konica Minolta Business Solutions, LenelS2, ManTech, Regroup Mass Notifications, SafeLogic, SolarWinds, Senstar, ShotSpotter, Smiths Detection, TCOM LP, Trackforce, Verint, and More!
Why American Security Today?
The traditional security marketplace has long been covered by a host of publications putting forward the old school basics to what is Today – a fast changing security landscape.
The traditional security marketplace has long been covered by a host of publications putting forward the old school basics to what is Today – a fast changing security landscape.
American Security Today is uniquely focused on the broader Homeland Security & Public Safety marketplace with over 75,000 readers at the Federal, State and local levels of government as well as firms allied to government.
American Security Today brings forward a fresh compelling look and read with our customized digital publications that hold readers eyes throughout the story with cutting edge editorial that provides solutions to their challenges.
Harness the Power of the Web – with our 100% Mobile Friendly Publications
The AST Digital Publications is distributed to over 75,000 qualified government and homeland security professionals in federal, state and local levels.
‘PROTECTING OUR NATION, ONE CITY AT A TIME’
AST Reaches both Private & Public Experts, essential to meeting these new challenges.
Today’s new generation of public safety and security experts need real-time knowledge to deal with domestic and international terrorism, lone wolf attacks, unprecedented urban violence, shifts in society, culture and media bias – making it increasingly difficult for Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, First Responders, Military and Private Security Professionals to implement coordinated security measures to ensure national security and improve public safety.
