Cybersecurity Solution a Win for ECPI University Charlotte Alum

STP Black Saves Time, Money, and Manpower

Not long after Patrick Wright graduated from ECPI University’s Charlotte campus in 2008, he co-founded an IT firm, STP Ventures. It has grown steadily and emerged as a respected provider of IT Solutions, including help desk support services, virtualization, network and cyber security, website design, and hosting. Now, he may be on the verge of something really big.

Patrick, his partner Sheryl Pierce, and their team of developers have invented an information security system that could possibly revolutionize the way organizations protect themselves from cyber-attacks. It’s called STP Black, and it automates a process that typically involves countless man hours and cumbersome processes.

Here’s how it works. STP Black (patent pending) is linked to threat databases throughout the world. On a rolling 15-minute clock, the most current threat data is funneled in. “The threats are verified and well researched,” says Wright. The moment we receive the data, it’s all automatic, no human interaction required. STP Black parses everything from IP Addresses and URLs related to an attack, along with file hashes associated with the attack files. Within 15 minutes of a new threat being uploaded, STP Black collects the critical information and updates the customer firewall to block the threat.

“A great real-world example of this would be the recent WannaCry Ransomware attack.  A short time after it hit, a file hash was identified and uploaded to many of the threat databases. That was a critical piece of information in the early prevention of the attack. STP Black syndicated that file hash to our customers within 15 minutes.” That’s a response that would be difficult for many IT departments to match, especially on an early weekend morning – even more so for IT departments at small- to medium-sized businesses.

“STP Black provides protection that was previously available only to massive companies with dozens of information security engineers dedicated to real-time defense,” says Keane Matthews, CISSP, a Vice President and Senior Tech Manager with a large national bank.

[Tweet “I can concretely say that ECPI and my professors provided me with the foundational knowledge and confidence I needed to be successful”]

One of Patrick’s former instructors is equally impressed. “STP Black is an example of what I challenge all my students to be able to do upon graduation,” says Dr. Michael Martin, Computer and Information Science Program Director at ECPI University’s Charlotte campus. “Take the skills they learn and synthesize solutions for problems with them.”

Cleary, Patrick did just that. “I can concretely say that ECPI and my professors provided me with the foundational knowledge and confidence I needed to be successful and grow as a professional in the information technology industry,” says Patrick. “The education went so much deeper than just book knowledge, with the professors giving actual examples and scenarios to apply the information they were teaching.  There were many times I would learn something in class and apply that skill to my job the very next day.”