For the second time in about a week, a service provider whose goal it is to keep franchised dealerships safe from online threats became a part of the NADA Affinity Provider Program.

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) introduced Seventh Knight as its newest program vendor on Thursday. Seventh Knight is a provider of unique ransomware protection solutions to Fortune 500 companies and to the defense industry and developed an embedded solution with MaaS360 Technology powered by IBM.

According to NADA, the layered solution secures enterprise networks from Ransomware and Zero Day attacks.

“With the growing threat of cyber ransom attacks to businesses of all sizes, NADA looked at a number of tools available in the marketplace to help dealers combat ransomware,” NADA president and chief executive officer Mike Stanton said in a news release.

“Seventh Knight offers a complete system that addresses the concerns many dealers have expressed about new and unknown data security threats, and it offers the ability to extend protection and management capabilities to every operating system and mobile device within an organization,” Stanton continued.

NADA’s Affinity Provider program provides NADA members with access to discounted pricing for select vendor products and services which help dealers address the issues and opportunities that are critical to their businesses.

While NADA serves as the clearinghouse, Affinity providers offer products and services that are responsive to dealer demand, and providers are carefully selected once NADA has examined a number of vendor products and services.

Last week, NADA expanded the programing by welcoming Accelerate2Compliance (A2C), which offers what’s designed to be an easy-to-use information security compliance solution.

And now the program also includes Seventh Knight, who is led by president Luke Koestler.

“Car and truck dealerships may be more attractive for ransomware attacks than many other retailers, since they rely on a wide range of data to conduct their business and typically have dozens of users accessing their systems,” Koestler said in the news release.

“Dealers need to protect their businesses through education, and by implementing a strong defense such as Seventh Knight’s patented AppMoat System that allows users to run the software they need while simultaneously preventing malicious items from compromising either their local machines or any network connected devices,” he went on to say.

For more information about Seventh Knight powered by IBM MaaS360, go to this website. For more information on the NADA Affinity Provider Program, visit this page.