Former bp Chief Information Security Officer Simon Hodgkinson Joins the Company’s Strategic Advisory Board to Support the Service Offerings
Semperis, the pioneer in identity-driven cyber resilience for enterprises, today announced the broader availability of its Breach Preparedness and Response (BP&R) services to further support the surging customer demand for comprehensive protection from identity-based cyberattacks. Previously released to a select group of accounts in early 2021, the BP&R services are designed to help customers combat the rapid increase of cyberattacks targeting Active Directory (AD), the identity system used in 90% of organizations worldwide. Semperis also announced the appointment of Simon Hodgkinson, former bp Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), to its strategic advisory board, further expanding its bench of threat intelligence and incident response experts.
At bp, Hodgkinson was responsible for cybersecurity strategy, governance, architecture, education, counter-threat operations, and incident response. He joined bp in 2002 and held several senior IT leadership roles. Prior to serving as CISO, he was the VP of Infrastructure and Integration Services. In his Strategic Advisory role at Semperis, Hodgkinson will work closely with the executive team and CISO community throughout North America and Europe to support the company’s BP&R services.
“Enterprises too frequently underestimate the importance of Active Directory security and recovery,” said Hodgkinson. “Enterprises are learning the hard way that if ransomware takes AD down, the entire business goes down with it. Semperis came to market with solutions and service offerings that dramatically increase the operational resiliency of organizations everywhere, starting with the core identity system, AD. I’m proud to be part of the mission and join the industry’s most skilled collection of AD security experts.”
Semperis’ BP&R services are specialized and comprehensive, spanning every stage of the AD cyberattack lifecycle. From preparation to incident response, the services include AD security assessments and threat mitigation, AD disaster recovery planning workshops and fire drills, AD cyberattack recovery, and AD incident investigation and forensics. Organizations benefit from battle-tested AD cybersecurity experts and industry-leading tools, along with 24/7 global incident response support.
In recognition of Semperis’ expertise in incident response, Frost & Sullivan recently named the company winner of the 2022 Competitive Strategy Leadership Award for its ability to meet customer needs in the ever-evolving AD and security market.
“Semperis has unmatched experience in breach preparedness and incident response to Active Directory and other identity-based cyberattacks,” said Sarah Pavlak, Frost & Sullivan Industry Principal. “Semperis’ solution-based approach focuses not only on their premier technology to meet customer challenges but also best practices and guidance for people and processes, setting them apart from their competitors.”
Semperis’ Director of Breach Preparedness & Response, Elad Shamir, leads the services program. “There’s no vendor or services provider that can outmatch Semperis’ combined 100 years of Microsoft MVP security experience in the directory services and Group Policy space,” said Shamir. “As someone who has spent his career in offensive security identifying and exploiting hard-to-find vulnerabilities, particularly in AD, I’m looking forward to working with the BP&R team to help organizations fortify their AD security posture and implement effective cyber-disaster recovery measures.”
Semperis’ BP&R services are in high demand: The company’s AD cybersecurity experts have already responded to multiple AD-based ransomware attacks in the healthcare sector and other critical infrastructure companies. Recently, a phishing attack compromised the AD of a large orthopedic practice. After a call from the orthopedic practice’s CTO, the Semperis’ BP&R team shut down risky access while a thorough analysis and cleansing of the AD took place. The BP&R team found a domain controller unimpacted by the attack to aid in a swift and secure recovery effort. Fortunately, the company did not suffer any data exfiltration, and business operations had minimal negative consequences. To get more details, the case study is available for download.
“Semperis helped us become acutely aware of the world we were in and the risks we faced,” said the CTO of the orthopedic practice. They helped us understand the different phases of the attack and possible future attacks, and helped detect and shut down the hackers once they got in. Semperis knows exactly what to look for and has the tools to do it.”
To learn more about Semperis’ BP&R service offerings, contact services@semperis.com.
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