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Financial Industry Rehearses Defenses Against Ransomware Within ManTech's Advanced Cyber Range Environment
[May 29, 2018]

Financial Industry Rehearses Defenses Against Ransomware Within ManTech's Advanced Cyber Range Environment


HERNDON, Va., May 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ManTech (Nasdaq:MANT) today announced a successful ransomware defense exercise for financial sector participants within its Advanced Cyber Range Environment (ACRE). Participants included 22 cybersecurity staff from 18 financial institutions, brought together by the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC).

ManTech ACRE improves cyber defenses by training cyber professionals in real-time tactical response to cyberattacks. Using safe replications of a customer’s network, ACRE conducts live malware attacks that test cyber team skills and cyber defenses – then provides specific training and recommends technology solutions that advance both. The goal is to improve the speed and efficiency of cybersecurity professionals, and to ensure that customers’ networks and IT infrastructure attain the highest levels of resilience to attack.

“All critical infrastructure industries, especially financial institutions, should perform regular, realistic exercises to build up their resilience muscle memory,” said Bill Nelson, president and chief executive officer of FS-ISAC. “Putting your company through an exercise, partnering up with your respective sector, or even participating in cross-sector exercises helps strengthen the ‘muscle memory’ needed to respond to an incident situation if and when it occurs.”

For this exercise, conducted in Atlanta, ManTech created an isolated replication of a tyical bank network within ACRE, then executed a live WannaCry-like ransomware attack via email phishing, a common form of social engineering used by hackers. The financial institutions’ cybersecurity professionals were challenged to identify the attack, collaborate on a response and defeat the ransomware while maintaining routine functions of the network.



Within ACRE, participants identified the network’s exploited vulnerabilities, determined the methods of propagation used by the ransomware, disabled the malware’s “command and control” functions, responded in real time as the malware adapted to their interventions – and successfully defeated the attack.

“This experience was identical to a real-world ransomware attack,” said Yvonne Vervaet, Chief Growth Officer and Senior Vice President of ManTech’s Mission, Cyber & Intelligence Solutions Group. “ACRE showed its value to the financial community as a means to prepare for cyberattacks, and just as importantly, as a way to precisely measure the effectiveness of their existing cyber defenses in order to accurately budget for any needed enhancements.”


About ManTech

ManTech provides mission-focused technology solutions and services for U.S. defense, intelligence community and federal civilian agencies. Now in our 50th year, we excel in full-spectrum cyber, data collection & analytics, enterprise IT, systems and software engineering solutions that support national and homeland security. Additional information on ManTech can be found at www.mantech.com.

Statements in this press release that do not directly and exclusively relate to historical facts constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, and could cause actual results to differ materially from those we anticipate. For a written description of these factors, see the section titled “Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as well as any updating information in our subsequent filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and we disclaim any obligation to update them, whether as a result of a subsequent event or otherwise.

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Media Contacts:

Jim Crawford

Executive Director, External Communications

(O) 703.259.3636 (M) 571.446.7550
[email protected]

Sue Cushing

Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Communications

(O) 703.814.8369 (M) 703.927.1482

[email protected]

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