Cedar Rapids company offers protection from ‘ransomware’

WatchPoint of Cedar Rapids has launched a new cybersecurity product that it contends will protect businesses from harmful software that infiltrates computer networks and hijacks valuable data.

CryptoStopper.io combines innovative and proprietary traps designed to detect and isolate ransomware.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that prevents or limits users from accessing their computer system, either by locking the system's screen or by locking the users' files unless a financial ransom is paid.

CryptoStopper.io monitors shared directories on a company's computer network. When ransomware variations appear, the infected computer is isolated and encryption of shared network files is prevented.

That minimizes the damage and allows other employees to continue working, according to WatchPoint.

Greg Edwards, founder and CEO of WatchPoint, said in a news release that CryptoStopper.io, which costs $10 per server per month, has been attracting customers since it was launched July 1.

'We are really pleased with early demand,” Edwards said. 'It is confirmation of the need for comprehensive and affordable cybersecurity and validates our assumptions of the market for our solution.”

Edwards launched WatchPoint last year after selling his former data backup and disaster recovery company, Axis Backup, to J2 Global, a Los Angeles-based publicly traded cloud services, unified communications, and digital media company.

While leading Axis Backup, Edwards and his data engineers saw the rapid increase in damage cyber criminals were doing with ransomware that created a high cost for vulnerable companies. Between 2012 and 2015, 20 percent of Axis Backup's clients were affected by cybercrime.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it received 2,453 complaints about ransomware holdups last year, costing the victims more than $24 million. It has predicted that cyber criminals will steal over $1 billion from the nation's businesses this year through payment for release of files from ransomware.