Cigent Endpoint Data Protection Thwarts Ransomware with Zero Trust Access Protections

Proactively Protects Data, Preserves Device Functionality in Attack Events –  Without Burdening Security or IT Teams

The Cigent team includes some of the world’s top experts at data exfiltration, and the Cigent Endpoint Data Protection Platform leverages this expertise in a new class of platform that proactively protects Microsoft Windows endpoint devices and data against threats – and helps preserve business continuity.

It’s the first known commercial solution that equips businesses to continue operations during an attack event with minimal user impact and without burdening IT and cybersecurity resources with administrative demands when an attack is in progress.

The High Price of Insufficient Endpoint Security: Current commercial endpoint and data security products consistently prove incapable of stopping ransomware, malware and other threats from disabling endpoints, which is why 68% to 70% of data loss incidents occur at the endpoint.

Much focus has been given to protecting data. Less understood is the importance of preserving endpoint operational ability: the hourly costs of downtime now exceed $300,000 per hour for 91% of SME and large enterprises. Fully 44% of mid-sized and large enterprise survey participants reported that a single hour of downtime can cost their business as much as $1 million. 

Cigent Chief Growth Officer Brett Hansen said: “Fundamental changes are long overdue. The detect and respond approach is insufficient with today’s threats as it doesn’t provide protection of endpoint data or enable worker resilience during or following a successful breach – an important capability that will grow more crucial as AI-enabled attacks increase frequency and severity of endpoint compromise.

The Cigent Platform protects data from ransomware, data exfiltration, and data loss, providing a comprehensive portfolio of endpoint data protection offerings.

It enables the most pervasive of IT elements — the global community of endpoint users, managers, and administrators – to proactively protect against ransomware and other threats before they can strike, and sustain productivity under attack. It provides layered security including zero-trust access control, hidden drives, and AI capabilities to stop all endpoint attacks without compromising daily operation and enabling workforce productivity throughout an attack.

The Platform features:

– Zero Trust Access Control: Verified, policy-driven step-up access control protects files from unauthorized access using AI and integration with major authentication solutions.

– Hidden Data Drives: Attackers cannot see or locate protected drives, ensuring data remains hidden at the sector level until unlocked with step-up authentication.

– AI Threat Defense: AI monitoring elevates threat levels instantly when ransomware or malware attempts to access data, integrating with EDR solutions to enhance protection.

– “Set and Forget” Operations: Automated protection that requires no direct intervention or administration by security or IT resources.

– Data Protection and Sustained Usability: Minimal impact on end-user experience and continued device usability during an attack.

“The Cigent Platform is an entirely new failsafe that delivers endpoint protection for the modern workforce. It protects endpoint data from threats, remote or physical, allows users to continue to operate even if a device has been compromised, and with a user-empathy design that mitigates user impact, prevents burdening IT and security staff,” Hansen said.

The Cigent team began with the working assumption that sooner or later, every organization’s PCs are likely to be compromised.

The Company’s exfiltration experts started by employing their expertise to reverse engineer a solution capable of protecting thousands or tens of thousands of endpoints against attackers, with minimal lag or UX disruption.

By leveraging software, hardware, or dual encryption, Cigent ensures foundational data-at-rest protection. Additional hidden partitions on SSDs provide added security, making data invisible to attackers. Zero-trust access controls maintain data protection with minimal user disruption, and integration with EDR and SIEM solutions elevates protections instantly based on threat status. Cigent’s AI detects malicious data activity and secures files proactively.

Chris Steffen, Vice President of Research with Enterprise Management Associates, praised the platform: “Ransomware and malware continue to erode productivity and plague companies. This endpoint protection platform clearly reflects the company’s mission: Cigent’s founders and lead developers are among the world’s leading data exfiltration experts, who reverse-engineered their own processes to create a new solution that doesn’t just respond – it protects data. Just as important, Cigent is arming organizations with a new approach to cybersecurity that sharply reduces the burdens on endpoint and security managers.”

To see the Cigent Endpoint Data Protection Platform, visit https://www.cigent.com/thinkshield-data-defense-cigent