CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Adaptive Security vs Cofense

Adaptive Security sells a platform that consolidates security awareness training, phishing simulations, email security, AI governance and human risk monitoring. Cofense sells a phishing defense platform that identifies and removes phishing campaigns reaching employee inboxes, along with phishing training built from real attack data. CISO Tribune files both under Security awareness training and Email security. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Adaptive Security
  • Cofense
Adaptive Security vs Cofense: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security sells a platform that consolidates security awareness training, phishing simulations, email security, AI governance and human risk monitoring.adaptivesecurity.comCofenseCofense sells a phishing defense platform that identifies and removes phishing campaigns reaching employee inboxes, along with phishing training built from real attack data.cofense.com
What it sells
  • Security Awareness Training[2][3][14][23]Interactive training modules covering AI threats, phishing, voice cloning, and compliance.
  • Phish Triage[2][3][17]Classifies employee-reported emails and takes action on them.
  • Compliance[2][3][21]Compliance and policy training for frameworks such as HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS and CCPA.
  • Cofense Phishing Defense Platform[2]A phishing defense platform powered by phishing-specific AI trained on billions of data points and signals from millions of reporters.
  • Cofense Phishing Remediation[8]Removes confirmed phishing threats from inboxes, including every variant of a confirmed campaign.
  • Cofense Command Center[2][6][8]One place to run a phishing defense program and prove it is working.
  • Cofense Phishing Training[3]Phishing training that uses real phishing data for adaptive simulations and awareness programs.
Categories
Headquarters
New York, United States[1]Arlington, United States[1]
Founded
2024[1][17]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately held[1][12][13]Not stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • October 6, 2026Adaptive Security was named to Fast Company's 2026 Next Big Things in Tech list.[11]
  • June 9, 2026Adaptive Security announced a 15-video security awareness training series starring Conan O'Brien, available to its current enterprise customers.[23]
  • April 23, 2026Adaptive Security published a product update announcing a beta release of its AI Governance capability.[10]
  • December 16, 2025Adaptive Security announced an $81 million Series B with new investors NVIDIA, Bain Capital Ventures, Capital One Ventures and Citi Ventures, plus existing investors.[9]
  • September 23, 2026Cofense added a Competency Dashboard to its Command Center that measures how ready an organization is against phishing threats, rather than only training completion.[4]
  • February 4, 2026Cofense released a threat intelligence report titled The New Era of Phishing: Threats Built in the Age of AI.[9]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: listed, seen November 4, 2026[5]
Who it fits
From its own pages, Adaptive Security sells mainly to organizations that want training, simulations, email security and AI governance in one platform. Its enterprise material addresses security teams that use separate tools for each of those functions. Its healthcare material addresses training staff at healthcare organizations, and it describes a hospital and a bank among its customers. Its pages address lean IT and security teams as well as established SOCs.From its own pages, Cofense sells mainly to security teams that run phishing defense at enterprise scale. Cofense describes its automated remediation as transparent, explainable, and safe to operationalize at enterprise scale. Cofense offers experts who can manage detection, remediation, and training end to end for teams that want to take the operational load off. Cofense positions its products as adding to existing email defenses.
Last verified
September 27, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Adaptive Security and Cofense are both filed under Security awareness training and Email security.
  • Both are headquartered in the United States.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Adaptive Security's primary category is Security awareness training; Cofense's is Email security.
  • Adaptive Security is also filed under AI governance. Cofense is also filed under Human risk management.
  • Adaptive Security lists Security Awareness Training, Phish Triage and Compliance. Cofense lists Cofense Phishing Defense Platform, Cofense Phishing Remediation, Cofense Command Center and Cofense Phishing Training.
  • Adaptive Security is headquartered in New York, United States. Cofense is headquartered in Arlington, United States.
  • Adaptive Security was founded in 2024.
  • Adaptive Security is privately held.

What it sells: Adaptive Security

What Security Awareness Training does[2][3][14][23]
Training modules are drawn from a library of over 1,000 resources. Triggered and one-time campaigns run automatically, with completion tracked across the organization. Customers can build custom modules from their own policies using Adaptive's AI content creator.
What Phish Triage does[2][3][17]
The Phish Alert Button and AI-powered Phish Triage classify employee-reported emails and automatically take action. Phish Triage remediates confirmed threats and notifies affected employees.
What Compliance does[2][3][21]
Pre-built tracks cover HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, CCPA, and more. Customers can upload a policy document or describe a requirement to generate training with AI. Audit-ready reports show completions and scores by framework, employee, and date.

What it sells: Cofense

What Cofense Phishing Defense Platform does[2]
The Cofense Phishing Defense Platform is powered by phishing-specific AI trained on billions of data points and signals from millions of reporters. Cofense says threat intelligence from real attacks connects remediation and training into a single defense rather than separate tools. Cofense says its phishing-specific AI classifies and processes reported threats at scale, and every decision it makes is explainable and analyst-verified.
What Cofense Phishing Remediation does[8]
Cofense says it can remove confirmed threats in seconds and automatically eliminate similar threats going forward. Cofense says it quarantines every variant of a confirmed campaign in under a minute. Cofense describes AI-powered clustering to detect polymorphic attacks before threats are confirmed.
What Cofense Command Center does[2][6][8]
Cofense Command Center is one place to run a phishing defense program and prove it is working. Cofense says Phishing Remediation data in Cofense Command Center adds real-world threat and remediation context alongside training and competency insights.
What Cofense Phishing Training does[3]
Cofense Phishing Training uses real phishing data for adaptive simulations and awareness programs. Cofense says simulations can replicate smishing, vishing, and QR-code phishing. Cofense says employees can report threats with one click into a global intelligence network.

Questions about Adaptive Security and Cofense

What do Adaptive Security and Cofense sell?
Adaptive Security sells Security Awareness Training, Phish Triage and Compliance. Cofense sells Cofense Phishing Defense Platform, Cofense Phishing Remediation, Cofense Command Center and Cofense Phishing Training.
Are Adaptive Security and Cofense in the same category?
They share Security awareness training and Email security. Adaptive Security's primary category is Security awareness training and Cofense's is Email security.
Where are Adaptive Security and Cofense headquartered?
Adaptive Security is headquartered in New York, United States. Cofense is headquartered in Arlington, United States.
When were Adaptive Security and Cofense founded?
Adaptive Security was founded in 2024.
Who owns Adaptive Security and Cofense?
Adaptive Security is privately held.
Who are Adaptive Security and Cofense sold to?
From its own pages, Adaptive Security sells mainly to organizations that want training, simulations, email security and AI governance in one platform. From its own pages, Cofense sells mainly to security teams that run phishing defense at enterprise scale.
What have Adaptive Security and Cofense announced recently?
October 6, 2026: Adaptive Security was named to Fast Company's 2026 Next Big Things in Tech list. September 23, 2026: Cofense added a Competency Dashboard to its Command Center that measures how ready an organization is against phishing threats, rather than only training completion.

About Adaptive Security

Adaptive Security sells a platform that consolidates security awareness training, phishing simulations, email security, AI governance and human risk monitoring. Adaptive Security says its products work together or stand alone.[2][3][14]

Adaptive Security says adversaries use AI and LLMs to rapidly generate sophisticated social engineering attacks that exploit organizational complexity at every level. For enterprises, Adaptive Security describes threats that include executive impersonation targeting finance and leadership teams, AI-generated spear phishing built from OSINT data, deepfake voice and video attacks, and inbound email threats that existing gateways miss. Adaptive Security describes attacks that arrive via email, SMS, voice, and video.[2][3][14]

Security Awareness Training consists of interactive training modules covering AI threats, phishing, voice cloning, and compliance, drawn from a library of over 1,000 resources. Triggered and one-time campaigns in Security Awareness Training run automatically, with completion tracked across the organization. Adaptive Security supports custom modules built from a customer's own policies using Adaptive's AI content creator. Adaptive Security says its healthcare training modules are designed to be completed in under 10 minutes. Adaptive Security integrates with Workday, ADP, and other common LMS platforms used in healthcare environments, and supports SCORM exports for organizations that need to push content into an existing learning management system.[2][3][5]

Phishing Simulations recreate the people, channels, and business situations employees trust. Adaptive Security simulates every major attack vector, including email phishing, SMS, voice calls, and deepfake video attacks. When someone fails a simulation, Adaptive Security delivers a short micro-lesson explaining exactly what to look for next time. Podium uses Adaptive Security's realistic voice and SMS phishing simulations alongside automated training campaigns, custom content, and integrations with Okta and Slack.[4][5][15][16]

Adaptive Security's Email Security re-analyzes every inbound message after native filtering to catch the attacks that reach the inbox anyway, then remediates them automatically. Threats are broken out by type: credential phishing, callback phishing, business email compromise, extortion, and malicious payloads. Adaptive Email Security detects and removes phishing attacks, including threats employees never report, and can investigate and remove detected threats across affected inboxes, including messages that have already been delivered. Adaptive Email Security examines who is making a request, how they communicate, and the business context behind the message to identify fraud that may contain no malicious link or attachment.[2][15][18]

The Phish Alert Button and AI-powered Phish Triage classify employee-reported emails and automatically take action. Adaptive Phish Triage automatically classifies and resolves high-confidence reports, allowing the security team to focus on messages that require attention. Adaptive Security can send verdicts and relevant context to supported downstream security workflows through integrations.[2]

Adaptive AI Governance builds a clear view of AI activity across a customer's organization. Adaptive Security says customers can see how employees use AI, prevent sensitive data exposure, and apply context-aware policies across browsers, desktop apps, and developer workflows. Adaptive Security defines shadow AI as the use of AI tools, accounts, or workflows that an organization has not approved or cannot properly see and govern. Adaptive Security distinguishes personal and company AI accounts used in browser-based workflows.[19][20]

For compliance training, Adaptive Security offers pre-built tracks for HIPAA, GDPR, PCI-DSS, CCPA, and more, with state and country-specific content in 40+ localized languages. Customers can upload a policy document or describe a requirement to generate training with AI. Adaptive Security exports audit-ready reports with completions and scores by framework, employee, and date.[3][21]

Adaptive Security says it is SOC 2 Type II certified, HIPAA compliant, and GDPR compliant. Adaptive Security connects to a customer's HRIS and identity provider so employee groups stay in sync automatically as people join, leave, or change roles. Adaptive Security describes Lake City Bank and Bay Federal among its customers, and says First Liberty achieved 98% security training completion, with staff finishing in about a day.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][14][18][21][22]

Adaptive Security on the record

Sources

Adaptive Security full record

  1. [1]Openai backed adaptive security named to fortunes cyber 60 list 302600736Adaptive Security via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published October 31, 2025 · Tier A
  2. [2]Protect Against Deepfakes and AI-Powered Attacks | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Finance | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Education | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Healthcare | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Government | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Hospitality | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Sports | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Our Series B, and the Future of Security Awareness in the Age of AIAdaptive Security · published December 16, 2025 · Tier A
  10. [10]AI Governance (Beta)Adaptive Security · published April 23, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Adaptive Security Named to Fast Company's 2026 Next Big Things in Tech ListAdaptive Security · published October 6, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Adaptive Security Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  13. [13]Adaptive Security Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  14. [14]Enterprise | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Payment & Vendor Fraud Prevention | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Deepfake & AI Impersonation Protection | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Automated Phishing Response | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Credential Phishing Protection | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]AI Governance & Data Protection | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  20. [20]Browser Security | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  21. [21]Compliance & Policy Training | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  22. [22]Executive Risk Reduction | Adaptive SecurityAdaptive Security · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  23. [23]Conan O'Brien Teams Up With Adaptive Security To Fight AI Threats with LaughsPR Newswire · published June 9, 2026 · Tier A

Cofense full record

  1. [1]ContactCofense · cofense.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Unified Phishing Defense Platform Built to Learn & Adapt | CofenseCofense · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]PhishMe Security Awareness Training (SAT) Platform | CofenseCofense · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cofense Expands AI-Driven Phishing Defense Platform to Advance Secure Behavior ManagementBusiness Wire · published September 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cofense Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  6. [6]Phishing Defense Powered by AI & Human Insight | CofenseCofense · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]About Us | Cofense Email SecurityCofense · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Phishing Detection & Rapid Response Platform | Cofense PDRCofense · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cofense Report Reveals AI-Powered Phishing Accelerated to One Attack Every 19 SecondsCofense · published February 4, 2026 · Tier A

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