Semperis - Experts & Thought Leaders

Semperis, a provider of AI-powered identity security and cyber resilience, released the official trailer for Midnight in the War Room, a groundbreaking new documentary. The film features top voices in cybersecurity and national security, including Chris Inglis, the first U.S. National Cyber Director; General (Ret.) David Petraeus, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director; Jen Easterly, former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director; Marcus Hutchins, WannaCry hero; and Professor Mary Aiken, world-renowned cyber psychologist—along with dozens of global security experts, cyber journalists, and reformed hackers. Escalating cyber conflict The feature-length film explores the escalating cyber conflict between nation states, criminal groups, and the defenders on the front lines of cyber war: the Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) safeguarding the world’s critical systems. More than 50 experts weigh in, including voices from the other side - former hackers, some who served time - offering rare insight into the attacker’s mindset. The stories reveal the human side of cyber war: courage, burnout, and the relentless fight to keep the lights on. The film pulls back the curtain on a war with no borders and no rules, where trust becomes a target and complacency becomes a weapon. Nation-state cyberattacks “The greatest threat we face isn’t just the sophistication of nation-state cyberattacks, it’s complacency,” says Inglis. “Resilience is forged when we refuse to accept today’s defences as enough and prepare for the battles still to come. That’s why I’m thrilled to be part of this film, a story that will ignite awareness, rally defenders and inspire us all to stand together in the fight.” Semperis is the first cybersecurity company to produce a full-length feature film on cyber war, spotlighting the defenders who safeguard the infrastructure society depends on: water and power systems, food supply chains, healthcare networks, and financial institutions targeted by nation states and ransomware gangs. Escalating cyber war “Midnight in the War Room is a truly special project for us, unlike anything our industry has seen,” says Thomas LeDuc, Chief Marketing Officer at Semperis and Executive Producer of the film. “We are humbled by the calibre of experts taking part—from former intelligence leaders to frontline CISOs, journalists, victims, and even reformed hackers—all coming together to tell this story. It offers a rare, human look at cyber defence … the courage, pressure, and resolve of the people who protect what keeps the world running.” The documentary features a powerhouse cast of prominent figures in cybersecurity and national security, offering a comprehensive look at top-of-mind challenges and potential solutions in the face of escalating cyber war. Real-world cyberattacks The film includes appearances by: Professor Mary Aiken, world-renowned cyber psychologist Heath Adams, cybersecurity industry educator and influencer Marene Allison, former CISO, Johnson & Johnson Krista Arndt, author, CISO, and Board Member, Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) Delaware Valley Affiliate Grace Cassy, Co-founder, CyLon, former Diplomat, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Heather M. Costa, Director of Technology Resilience, Mayo Clinic Anne Coulombe, former CISO, MassMutual Jen Easterly, former CISA Director Ori Fragman, former CISO, Hapag-Lloyd John Hammond, cybersecurity industry educator and influencer Simon Hodgkinson, former CISO, bp Marcus Hutchins (MalwareTech), cybersecurity researcher known for stopping WannaCry Chris Inglis, first U.S. National Cyber Director Philip Keibler, Vice President and CISO, large midwestern supermarket chain Jesse McGraw (Ghost Exodus), former hacktivist turned white hat General (Ret.) David Petraeus, former CIA Director David Schwed, CISO, Robinhood Richard Stiennon, Founder, IT-Harvest Joe Tidy, Cyber Correspondent, BBC Dozens more expert interviews to be announced in the coming weeks, sharing first-hand accounts of real-world cyberattacks and the fight to defend against them Champion cyber resilience “Defeating the malicious cyberattacks that threaten our way of life will take more than technology designed to be secure, it will take the creativity and curiosity of the human mind,” says Easterly. “Those qualities empower defenders to outthink and outmanoeuvre adversaries, and it’s an honour to be part of Midnight in the War Room to advance that mission.” Midnight in the War Room was produced by Semperis Media and filmed across North America and Europe. Semperis is partnering with leading cybersecurity and professional organisations - including the CyberRisk Alliance (CRA), the Cyber Future Foundation (CFF), the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT), (ISC)² Eastern Massachusetts Chapter, the Michigan Council of Women in Technology, and the WiCyS Delaware Valley Affiliate, among many others - to co-host private showings, raise community awareness, and champion cyber resilience.

Semperis, a pioneer in identity-driven cyber resilience, announced the release of Ready1 for Identity Crisis Management—which combines its innovative Active Directory Forest Recovery (ADFR), Disaster Recovery for Entra Tenant (DRET), and Identity Forensics and Incident Response (IFIR) services with its expert-built enterprise crisis management system, Ready1—to help organisations quickly return to normal business operations after identity-related cyberattacks. The ground-breaking solution is available at no additional cost for qualifying customers. Complete identity resilience problem “Semperis is unique in thinking about the complete identity resilience problem—before, during, and after an incident,” said Alex Weinert, Semperis Chief Product Officer. “During an identity outage, one of the hardest things to deal with is figuring out how to get in touch with your team when all identity-dependent systems are down. For most customers, that means all apps and services, including email, conferencing, file shares, contacts, and operations. How do you communicate and coordinate?” “Semperis Ready1 for Identity Crisis Management gives organisations everything they need to streamline incident response and recover the identity infrastructure, significantly speeding return to normal business operations. Solving this problem is core to delivering identity resilience, and we are delighted to provide this capability to our identity resilience customers at no additional cost.” Automated solutions Ready1 for Identity Crisis Management provides automated solutions to help organisations: Orchestrate the response with a command-and-control console that streamlines team-building, incident analysis, and status reporting Communicate with team members and stakeholders during an identity outage that disrupts internet service In combination with ADFR and DRET, quickly recover the business-critical identity system to a known trusted environment—reducing the impact of an identity system compromise Facilitate post-attack forensics to remove persistence and close backdoors, preventing follow-on attacks Unifying identity recovery and response “We wrote the playbook for cyber-first hybrid identity recovery,” said Mickey Bresman, Semperis CEO. “Through our identity-focused incident response service engagements to help organisations recover from hybrid AD and Entra ID ransomware attacks, we have witnessed time after time the chaos of incident response when the company identity systems are compromised.” “Unifying identity recovery and response with cyber crisis management in one seamless offering helps organisations assemble the technology, processes, and people to keep chaos at bay even when all systems are down, effectively manage the incident, and quickly restore the identity system to a trusted environment.” Zero-cost licence Ready1 for Identity Crisis Management is a zero-cost licence available on a limited basis to customers of Semperis’ Active Directory Forest Recovery and Disaster Recovery for Entra Tenant, with release to a broader audience planned for early 2026.

Cohesity and Semperis announced a new product, Cohesity Identity Resilience, powered by Semperis, to defend enterprises’ critical identity infrastructure, including Microsoft Active Directory assets from cyberattacks. Now available for purchase from Cohesity, the solution is the strongest of its kind in the market, enabling companies to proactively harden defences, recover rapidly, and conduct comprehensive post-attack forensic investigations. Role within IT environments Active Directory is the central nervous system of most enterprise IT environments, managing authentication and access to critical systems, applications, and data. Active Directory’s crucial role within IT environments makes it a primary target for cybercriminals. When Active Directory is compromised, attackers can gain unrestricted access to IT resources, often resulting in ransomware infection, data theft, and prolonged business disruption. Users protect and secure on-premises Cohesity Identity Resilience supports Active Directory protection and recovery across hybrid environments Cohesity Identity Resilience supports Active Directory protection and recovery across hybrid environments. The solution helps users protect and secure on-premises Active Directory and extends these safeguards to Microsoft Entra ID in the cloud. Organisations can protect and recover the source of authority for objects synchronised across their entire Active Directory and Entra ID identity landscape.  Key battlegrounds of cyberattacks “Identity Security is one of the key battlegrounds of cyberattacks for enterprises and governments. They need solutions that combine prevention, resilience, and recovery without adding complexity to their existing cyber resilience strategy,” said Sanjay Poonen, chief executive officer, Cohesity. “Cohesity Identity Resilience delivers a modern, proven approach that helps organisations protect the foundation of their digital operations, so they can recover quickly from even the most critical attacks on identity infrastructures and remain cyber resilient. We’re excited to partner with Semperis on this effort.”  Semperis’ proven expertise and technology Cohesity Identity Resilience builds on Semperis’ proven expertise and technology in Active Directory protection and recovery, delivering automated, malware-free recovery capabilities that minimise downtime and ensure a clean, reliable path back to normal business operations. With Cohesity Identity Resilience, customers benefit from: Proactive Active Directory hardening – Provides the ability to scan on-prem or hybrid Active Directory environments for hundreds of indicators of exposure (IOEs), see risk scores, apply remediation guidance, and identify and prioritise attack paths that bad actors could use to reach critical privileged assets (Tier 0).  Secure, immutable backups with capability for cyber vaulting – Enables consistent backup and recovery workflows while providing isolation of AD backups.  Rapid and secure recovery – Restores Active Directory forests after a cyberattack or catastrophic failure, ensuring minimal downtime.  Specialised identity forensics and incident response capabilities – Cleanses the system of attacker artefacts, ensuring Active Directory is restored to a trusted environment.  Comprehensive post-breach analysis – Offers comprehensive post-attack forensic support, including rapid assessments within defined incident windows, and validation of Active Directory integrity before restoring production systems.  Advantages of critical systems Cohesity Identity Resilience builds on the partnership between Cohesity and Semperis that began in 2024 “Active Directory compromises are devastating because they give attackers so many paths to take advantage of critical systems,” said Mickey Bresman, chief executive officer, Semperis. “By partnering with Cohesity, we’re integrating our industry-pioneering Active Directory technology with the broadly adopted Cohesity Data Cloud, ensuring the world’s largest global organisations have a trusted, streamlined path to protect against and recover from even the most sophisticated identity-based attacks.” Cohesity Identity Resilience builds on the partnership between Cohesity and Semperis that began in 2024. Important step forward in building true cyber resilience "Active Directory compromises often turn into prolonged business disruptions that are costly and difficult to contain,” said Scott Harrison, director, Hybrid Infrastructure Solutions, CDW. “With Cohesity Identity Resilience, powered by Semperis, we see a solution that directly addresses this gap—helping enterprises strengthen defences, recover quickly, and maintain confidence in their core identity systems. It’s the kind of capability our customers have been asking for, and it represents an important step forward in building true cyber resilience.”