I founded Strategic Cyber LLC in 2012 to advocate a vision of threat-representative security testing. Over time, Cobalt Strike became the de facto commercial standard for red team operations and adversary simulations. I’ve long asked myself, how do I stay a good partner to my customers as their numbers grow and this field evolves?

Today is a big step forward as Minnesota-based HelpSystems, LLC has acquired Strategic Cyber. I have joined HelpSystems as a Technical Director for Cybersecurity. I will lead the team that continues the R&D-driven releases of the Cobalt Strike product. The Cobalt Strike product and business operations of Strategic Cyber will benefit from the experience and resources at HelpSystems.

HelpSystems is a good fit for Strategic Cyber and its customers. The company was founded in 1982 and is a cyber security company and the largest independent vendor in the IBM i space. Their portfolio includes antivirus, identity and access management, secure file transfer, intrusion detection, and security services for IBM i, Linux, and other platforms. HelpSystems became successful through good products, partnership with their customers, and taking care of their team.

HelpSystems is the parent company of Core Security, the creators of the Core Impact penetration testing tool. Core Impact came to market in 2003, a time when exploits were published by anonymous authors and the use of these exploits had safety and reliability implications. Core Impact became the trusted product to automate penetration tests, exploit the latest vulnerabilities, and pivot to new targets.

Cobalt Strike’s story is similar. Cobalt Strike came to market in 2012, a time when security meant prevention of breaches with less thought on post-breach containment, detection, and response. Cobalt Strike explored the post-breach offense problems of team collaboration, flexible communications, and novel capability to demonstrate risks. When security teams needed to emulate real-world attack scenarios to improve security operations and exercise processes, Cobalt Strike became the natural choice.

I’m excited to explore the synergy between Cobalt Strike and Core Impact. Our work is to share knowledge, offer real insight into risk, and drive objective and meaningful security advances. As this field evolves, we will evolve with it.

Press Release:

https://www.helpsystems.com/about/news/helpsystems-acquires-cobalt-strike-expand-core-security-business