Cyber adAPT

About Cyber adAPT

Cyber adAPT operates in the network threat detection market, offering solutions designed to identify malicious activity within enterprise networks. The company was founded in 2014, with some sources indicating the operational start or restructuring in March 2015, and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It specifically targets mid-market companies, defined as those with revenues between $500 million and $1 billion, which possess significant assets but may lack the resources for the most sophisticated cybersecurity systems.

The company's history is closely tied to its President and CEO, Kirsten Bay. Bay has over 25 years of experience in risk intelligence, information management, and corporate restructuring. Her journey into cybersecurity was unconventional for an English and German literature major. She began her career in risk management and supply-chain logistics at Jantzen, later moving into the financial services sector. A pivotal moment came when she was brought into a book project on cyber risk models, leading to work with the NSA, DHS, and NIST on developing cybersecurity standards. Prior to Cyber adAPT, Bay held executive roles at iSIGHT Partners (later sold to FireEye), Attensity Group, and ISC8, where she honed her expertise in corporate turnarounds and launching intelligence products. She took over the technology of a predecessor company, ISC8, restructured it through chapter 11, and formed Cyber adAPT in March 2015, subsequently hiring a new team and rewriting the product.

Cyber adAPT's core offering is a real-time, network-based threat detection platform, named skwiid, which operates by continuously monitoring 100% of network traffic to find threats that have bypassed perimeter defenses. The system is agent-less and does not rely on signatures; instead, it uses deep packet inspection and analyzes network behavior against threat intelligence to detect anomalies and lateral movement by adversaries inside the network. Key features include packet capture and metadata storage for forensic analysis and incident response. The platform also extends protection to mobile and bring-your-own-devices (BYOD) by using a fully virtualized solution and an IPsec tunnel to analyze traffic from off-premise devices like laptops and phones as if they were on the corporate network. This addresses the significant vulnerability posed by the mobile workforce. The business model involves direct sales to corporations as well as a majority of sales through partners, including insurance providers and brokers like BrokersLink. The company has raised a total of $19.4M in funding over several rounds and also acquired Mobile Active Defense to bolster its capabilities.