Penetration Testing Firms: 10 Companies compared

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, A-LIGN is a compliance audit firm that helps organizations start and grow their compliance programs across SOC 2, ISO 27001, CMMC, and ISO 42001 frameworks. Testing sits alongside those audits through a single, consolidated provider relationship, scoped to satisfy SOC 2 and ISO 27001 requirements and run by a team kept independent from the audit side.

Founded in 1998 by Joshua Pennell and led since 2008 by Jennifer Sunshine Steffens, IOActive is headquartered in Seattle with offices in Atlanta, London, Madrid, and Dubai. The firm is known for full-stack security assessments and deep specialism in hardware, embedded systems, semiconductors, automotive, industrial control, and other safety-critical environments.

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Mandia, Mandiant built a global reputation responding to the world's most high-profile breaches. After acquisition by FireEye in 2013 and by Google for ~$5.4B in 2022, the firm retained its brand and now operates inside Google Cloud as a specialist consultancy for incident response, threat intelligence, and offensive security.

PCA Cyber Security is an embedded cybersecurity firm based in Munich and Budapest, founded in 2019. It tests and monitors connected and embedded products for clients in financial services, automotive and mobility, manufacturing and industrial automation, energy, rail and healthcare, and its services and platform support the security requirements of the Cyber Resilience Act, PCI PTS, UN R155, ISO/SAE 21434 and related standards. Penetration testing covers payment terminals, PIN pads, unattended terminals and ATMs; ECUs, telematics, vehicles and EV chargers; SCADA, PLCs and OT networks; IoT, embedded and medical devices; railway systems; and the web, mobile and cloud applications around them, with hardware and firmware research done in its CyberLab and CyberGarage facilities. PCA also builds PCA Cervus, a device-centric vulnerability monitoring and threat intelligence platform that takes a supplier's SBOM through to remediation evidence. The firm holds TISAX Assessment Level 3 with protection of prototype parts, is a registered Associate Participating Organization of the PCI Security Standards Council, took part in Pwn2Own Automotive in 2024 and 2025, and its researchers have spoken at Black Hat, Hexacon, Escar and Hacktivity.

SBS CyberSecurity is a US cybersecurity consulting, audit and testing firm founded in Madison, South Dakota in 2004. Its core market is regulated financial institutions, community banks and credit unions, served through risk management programmes, IT and network security audits, penetration testing, and the TRAC governance, risk and compliance platform. Co-founders Chad Knutson and Jon Waldman acquired full ownership of the company in July 2022. Penetration testing covers external network, internal network, web application, wireless, and PCI DSS Requirement 11 engagements, aligned to NIST, OWASP and PTES. Alongside testing, SBS runs red team, purple team and social engineering assessments, and advisory work including virtual CISO, NIST Cybersecurity Framework assessments, cybersecurity maturity assessments, and vendor risk management. For defense contractors, SBS provides CMMC readiness for Level 1 and Level 2: gap identification, documentation and preparation for assessment. Certification itself is completed by a separate Certified Third Party Assessment Organization (C3PAO); SBS is not listed on the Cyber AB Marketplace as an RPO or C3PAO.