There are so many different options for cyber security for businesses, even wading through the CyberSecurity 500 is a daunting task. To that end we have assembled a list (in no particular order) of some of the leading cybersecurity firms around at the moment. These are some of the movers and shakers. The companies are both big and small and may specialize in different facets of the cyber security market from Anti-virus to DDoS protection services. These are some of the biggest and brightest in the field at the moment.
Herjavec Group is a Toronto-based cyber security firm company, that provides 24/7/365 protection for your data and IT infrastructure operating on a global scale, with over 30 offices around the world in the likes of Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, they have been rising quietly up the cybersecurity 500 – from #23 in 2015, #10 in January 2016, to sitting where they are now at #2 on the list. They specialise in a number of cyber security facets; security gap assessments, consulting, implementation, managed services, networking, remediation & incident response.
IBM Security is a strand of IBM, focused on data and application security. Ranked #3 on the Cybersecurity 500, IBM aims to protect businesses using a unique enterprise security portfolio to identify and disrupt new threats, utilize security innovations and cut the cost and complexity of cyber-security. They have recently announced, that they will be teaching Watson (IBM’s AI project) to track reports, blogs and other information on emerging threats, so they’ll be able to assist companies facing cyberattacks. This is a new step in the fight against cyber-crime, as AI is relatively untested in this field, though Watson will only be offering advice for now.
AVG is a world renowned anti-virus software, with over 200 million active users of their software and products. They provide internet security to private and commercial interests, ranging from family homes to massive corporations, housing offices in Europe, Canada, Israel, The US, and Brazil. They provide software across all major platforms and operating systems, with a range of products tailored for businesses, like CloudCare to protect you and your clients data in the cloud, and various levels of task and security automation to keep you protected at all times.
Kaspersky Lab is a global cyber-security and anti-virus firm headquartered in Moscow. It was founded in 1997 by the storied Russian security specialist Eugene Kaspersky, initially providing anti-virus software to large companies and later expanding to offer consumer and mobile security products. It’s researchers famously uncovered several famous hacking groups and pieces of malware – including Flame, a cyber espionage program that was discovered in 2012. Their software currently has around 400 million users and has the largest market-share of cybersecurity software vendors in the whole of Europe.
Cisco is an American multinational technology conglomerate in San José, California. They offer a vast array of services, software, and hardware, and have a dedicated security sector. Cisco offer their cyber-security products and services to businesses of all sizes and requirements, providing cloud, email, web, and router protection, network visibility, and intrusion prevention systems. They can even provide consultation and remote monitoring, ensuring comprehensive security solutions.
Check Point Software Technologies Limited is an Israeli provider of security software and combined hardware and software, operating globally, with offices in Belarus, Ontario, California, Sweden, and Texas. Check Point is involved with the cyber-security in over 100,000 organizations – they utilize complete security architecture in addition to comprehensive and intuitive security, offering mobile, public and private cloud security as well as next generation threat detection and firewalls. They are by far the largest pure-play cyber security in terms of market capitalization in the world, with a rough value of $16 billion.
Cylance was the fastest growing private cybersecurity firm in the market this year, over the past few years, they have seen a staggering growth of 7,613%. They were founded in 2012 and based out of California, CEO Stuart McClure founded the company as a reaction to his concern that most cyber security is simple reactive, and he wanted to build a more proactive model. They claim to provide ‘silent security’ (requiring very little maintenance and updates), that is easy to deploy and manage, utilizing AI and Machine Learning to revolutionize cyber security. Described by Cyber Secure India as “the first company to apply artificial intelligence, algorithmic science and machine learning to cyber security”, they offer an anti-virus software that is designed to prevent, rather than detect viruses and Malware – doing away with with the signature-based technology used by traditional security vendors.
PhishMe is a US information security firm that provides technology that helps organizations educate their employees about how to spot potential phishing risks. Phishing is still the most common ways for a hacker to gain access to an organization’s IT – PhishMe claim that more than 90% of all breaches can be attributed to successful fishing campaigns (and companies usually attribute blame to their employees). They want to combat this risk by better educating employees of their clients in order to alleviate this risk, by empowering people to identify and spot potential danger themselves, they are cutting out the problem at the source.
“We are in the business of training employees to make smarter security decisions” is the ambitious mission statement that KnowBe4 operate by. The rules they live by are simple: “Do it right the first time, do it fast, and have fun while you do it” – they focus on user education and promoting their “new-school” security awareness training. Given that the majority of recent large scale security breaches are from targeted phishing attacks, it makes sense to spend time learning to identify these threats and combat them. KnowBe4 have subsequently become the world’s most popular integrated Security Awareness Training and Simulated Phishing platform – with many banks and credit unions using their services.
It seemed natural to finish with the firm ranked #1 on Cybersecurity 500 for the last quarter of 2016 – making it 4 quarters in a row, that’s the whole of 2016. Root9B is cybersecurity consulting and operational support firm with clientele ranging from medium sized businesses to Fortune 100 companies across a range of industries (including some Government DoD (Department of Defence contracts). They also offer training courses in an array of cyber security measures such as defensive cyber operations, adversary pursuit methodologies, and systems forensics.
By Josh Hamilton
