SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — October 6, 2016 —  Leading data security and identity theft protection firm CyberScout experienced significant momentum and growth throughout the first half of 2016, positioning the company for a strong second half of the year and beyond.

"The increased demand for our services – combined with the incredibly high number of cases and calls our fraud center has received – proves that today's heightened cyber-risk environment is impacting us all," said Matt Cullina, CEO, CyberScout. "We're confident that we provide the premier identity theft and data risk solutions in the industry, and this success is a testament to our incredibly dedicated and innovative employees across the globe."

Key highlights from the first half of 2016 include:

Client and partner expansion CyberScout added a total of 43 global customers throughout the first half of 2016, including several industry-leading insurance agencies; financial institutions; and employee benefits and solutions providers.

CyberScout also entered into strategic partnerships and has experienced a 92 percent growth in channel partners since 2015.

Customer satisfaction preserved with increased demand  During the first six months of the year, CyberScout's average customer satisfaction score was nearly perfect at 99.3 percent, with the company's fraud center recovering a total of $4.9 million for customers – a 6.5 percent increase from the last half of 2015.

In Canada, CyberScout's fraud center experienced a record-breaking number of calls and cases per month since services for the country became available in 2012.
Continued innovation of services  CyberScout rolled out notable enhancements to DataRiskStages, its leading data breach mitigation and remediation service, in February. To enhance support for insurance companies and their commercial policyholders, the overhauled platform includes three new features:

• Ins.breachresponse.com to help avoid and manage a breach;   
• CyberScoutClaims™ for more efficient claims handling;    
• New analytics for more accurate cyber underwriting.

In March, CyberScout expanded DataRiskStages to two new key industries: financial institutions and employee benefit providers.

CyberScout Consulting received accreditation and executive implementation approval for its redeveloped Information Security Program in February. This includes 18 information security policies, which realign the CyberScout information security governance practices to be consistent with U.S. NIST 800-53 standard.

Additionally, CyberScout Consulting designed, developed and received executive implementation approval for the new CyberScout Vendor Management Program in April, created as a means to enhance its risk management controls for the selection and ongoing management of its outsourcing vendors and service providers.

New executive hire  To strengthen clients' security posture and safeguard them from today's emerging threats, CyberScout brought on Eric Hodge as its new Director of Consulting in May. Eric has nearly two decades of technology management and cybersecurity consulting experience, having held previous roles at Protiviti and Jefferson Wells.

Industry thought leadership  CyberScout continued to showcase its industry thought leadership by releasing research at the forefront of emerging business and consumer cybersecurity trends, including:   

• In February, a report detailing how Americans were ignoring simple cybersecurity precautions and best practices during this year's tax season .    
• In April, a joint report with the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) to highlight the more than 6,000 data breaches reported since 2005.    
• In June, a report revealing that a majority of business owners were unlikely to pay off cybercriminals in the event of ransomware and lack the proper resources to overcome this type of cyber-attack.

In addition to these reports, CyberScout began preparations for its fourth annual Privacy XChange Forum, scheduled for October 16 – 18. The invitation-only conference will unite experts and business leaders from around the world to discuss actionable ways to secure data from cyber threats, and will feature highly sought-after speakers, such as former national counterintelligence executive Joel Brenner and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, among many others.