CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Bishop Fox vs IANS

Bishop Fox sells offensive security services, including penetration testing and continuous security testing. IANS is a practitioner-sourced intelligence engine where data, peer experience and expert insights converge for security teams. CISO Tribune files both under Penetration testing and red team services. 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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  • Bishop Fox
  • IANS
Bishop Fox vs IANS: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Bishop FoxBishop Fox sells offensive security services, including penetration testing and continuous security testing.bishopfox.comIANSIANS is a practitioner-sourced intelligence engine where data, peer experience and expert insights converge for security teams.ians.com
What it sells
  • Cosmos[3][7][13][14]Bishop Fox's cloud-native technology platform and the foundation of its offensive security services.
  • Penetration Testing Services[4]Bishop Fox penetration testing across applications, networks, products, cloud, and AI systems.
  • Application Penetration Testing[3][9][14]Testing of web, mobile, and other applications, including an AI-powered portfolio option.
  • External Penetration Testing[10]Perimeter testing that emulates targeted adversaries.
  • Hardware Penetration Testing[4][11]Testing of connected devices and their ecosystems.
  • Continuous Security Testing[5][8]Managed continuous testing that Bishop Fox ties to Continuous Threat Exposure Management programs.
  • AIMap[3]Open-source tool built by Bishop Fox for testing exposed AI endpoints.
  • Ask IANS[12]An AI Q&A service built on a proprietary database of IANS Faculty expert advice.
  • Client Portal[12][14]A library of research, tools and templates contributed by IANS Faculty.
  • CISO Inquiry Community[12]An invitation-only service where CISOs gain insights from a private community of peers.
Categories
Headquarters
Tempe, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2005[1][4][8]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • February 10, 2026Bishop Fox announced an updated application penetration testing service that combines its expert testing teams with its proprietary AI engine, Cosmos AI.[14]
  • August 25, 2026IANS named Kelley Hippler as its Chief Revenue Officer, citing her revenue leadership experience at Thought Industries, Briefly Legal, and Forrester.[16]
  • July 15, 2026IANS announced the launch of its Model Context Protocol Server, which delivers cybersecurity insights and data through the AI tools security teams use.[10]
  • March 31, 2026IANS announced the launch of a security-focused news offering with daily coverage written by its in-house reporters and backed by expert practitioner analysis.[9]
  • February 4, 2026IANS appointed Dan Klein as Executive Vice President, Faculty and Professional Services.[11]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Bishop Fox sells mainly to organizations that want offensive security testing of their applications, cloud, networks, devices, and AI systems. Bishop Fox says most enterprises manage many applications with constrained budgets and headcount. Customers it describes include a healthcare technology company moving to SaaS, an energy provider facing nation-state threats to critical infrastructure, and a financial services organization. Its hardware testing is aimed at healthcare devices, consumer tech, and industrial systems. Bishop Fox says it works with customers who are looking to safely deploy AI, release a new app or service, or validate corporate governance. Cosmos is delivered as a managed platform, so customers do not deploy or maintain it themselves.From its own pages, IANS sells mainly to CISOs and their cybersecurity teams. A privacy service from IANS is aimed at CISOs, privacy teams and compliance teams. IANS offers an invitation-only community in which CISOs gain insights from their peers. IANS describes professional development that runs from hands-on technical skill to the executive table. No vendor can become an IANS client. IANS offers data-as-a-service delivery of its content to clients that license it.
Last verified
September 27, 2026October 16, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Bishop Fox and IANS are both filed under Penetration testing and red team services.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Bishop Fox's primary category is Penetration testing and red team services; IANS's is Security consulting and advisory.
  • Bishop Fox is also filed under External attack surface management. IANS is also filed under Security awareness training.
  • Bishop Fox lists Cosmos, Penetration Testing Services, Application Penetration Testing, External Penetration Testing, Hardware Penetration Testing and 2 more. IANS lists Ask IANS, Client Portal and CISO Inquiry Community.
  • Bishop Fox is headquartered in Tempe, United States.
  • Bishop Fox was founded in 2005.

What it sells: Bishop Fox

What Cosmos does[3][7][13][14]
Cosmos builds and verifies a living inventory of an organization's external attack surface. It integrates with customer workflows through Jira and ServiceNow, syncing validated findings into existing ticketing systems. Bishop Fox operates and manages Cosmos as part of its services, and customers do not deploy or maintain it.
What Penetration Testing Services does[4]
Bishop Fox penetration testing spans applications, networks, products, cloud, and AI systems. Engagements cover web and mobile apps, cloud environments in AWS, GCP, Azure, and Kubernetes, and IoT, consumer, commercial, and industrial devices.
What Application Penetration Testing does[3][9][14]
Bishop Fox runs in-depth manual and dynamic analyses of Android and iOS devices and apps, guided by OWASP testing methodologies. Bishop Fox AI-Powered Application Penetration Testing delivers validated, expert-reviewed findings across an entire portfolio.
What External Penetration Testing does[10]
Bishop Fox says its External Penetration Testing emulates targeted adversaries and results in discovery of defensive gaps, including likelihood of exploitation and business impact. Testing extends to public cloud storage services and peripheral web apps.
What Continuous Security Testing does[5][8]
Bishop Fox provides continuous security testing that it describes as integral to a successful Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) program. Its managed services identify, prioritize, and help remediate business-impacting exposures.
What AIMap does[3]
AIMap is an open-source tool built by Bishop Fox. It discovers, scores, and tests exposed AI endpoints.

What it sells: IANS

What Client Portal does[12][14]
The Client Portal provides a library of research, tools and templates contributed by IANS Faculty. Client Portal website data and infrastructure are based in the U.S.

Questions about Bishop Fox and IANS

What do Bishop Fox and IANS sell?
Bishop Fox sells Cosmos, Penetration Testing Services, Application Penetration Testing, External Penetration Testing, Hardware Penetration Testing and 2 more. IANS sells Ask IANS, Client Portal and CISO Inquiry Community.
Are Bishop Fox and IANS in the same category?
They share Penetration testing and red team services. Bishop Fox's primary category is Penetration testing and red team services and IANS's is Security consulting and advisory.
Where are Bishop Fox and IANS headquartered?
Bishop Fox is headquartered in Tempe, United States.
When were Bishop Fox and IANS founded?
Bishop Fox was founded in 2005.
Who are Bishop Fox and IANS sold to?
From its own pages, Bishop Fox sells mainly to organizations that want offensive security testing of their applications, cloud, networks, devices, and AI systems. From its own pages, IANS sells mainly to CISOs and their cybersecurity teams.
What have Bishop Fox and IANS announced recently?
February 10, 2026: Bishop Fox announced an updated application penetration testing service that combines its expert testing teams with its proprietary AI engine, Cosmos AI. August 25, 2026: IANS named Kelley Hippler as its Chief Revenue Officer, citing her revenue leadership experience at Thought Industries, Briefly Legal, and Forrester.

About Bishop Fox

Bishop Fox sells offensive security services, including penetration testing and continuous security testing. Bishop Fox says it has 20 years of offensive security experience and thousands of customer engagements. Bishop Fox was founded by ethical hackers. Bishop Fox says it is behind offensive security tools including Sliver and CloudFox. Bishop Fox applies agentic AI to its offensive testing, and Bishop Fox assesses models and architectures as part of securing AI and LLM initiatives.

Bishop Fox penetration testing spans applications, networks, products, cloud, and AI systems. Bishop Fox offers assessments of AI systems tailored to the customer's use case, priorities, and development lifecycle. Bishop Fox's application offering includes web and mobile app penetration testing, AI-powered portfolio assessments, and secure code review. Application testing covers web, thick-client, e-commerce, single page applications, and APIs. Bishop Fox runs in-depth manual and dynamic analyses of Android and iOS devices and apps, guided by OWASP testing methodologies. Bishop Fox AI-Powered Application Penetration Testing delivers validated, expert-reviewed findings across an entire portfolio. Bishop Fox application testers are fluent in programming languages such as Python, C, C#, C++, Java, JavaScript, GO, Swift, PHP, Rust, and Objective C.[9]

Bishop Fox cloud testing goes beyond configuration reviews to identify critical and exploitable paths in AWS, GCP, Azure, and Kubernetes environments. Bishop Fox network testing simulates real-world attack scenarios to uncover perimeter weaknesses and identify how an attacker could gain access to internal networks. Bishop Fox says its External Penetration Testing emulates targeted adversaries and results in discovery of defensive gaps, including likelihood of exploitation and business impact. Bishop Fox hardware and software testing covers IoT, consumer, commercial, and industrial devices. Hardware testing inspects devices down to electronic components including PCBs, chips, storage, debugging interfaces, and bus protocols. Bishop Fox experts test strategic partners and 3rd party vendors.[11]

Bishop Fox provides continuous security testing that it describes as integral to a successful Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) program. Bishop Fox managed services identify, prioritize, and help customers remediate business-impacting exposures. Bishop Fox Attack Surface Discovery continuously finds, validates, and attributes perimeter assets. Bishop Fox Emerging Threat Testing delivers a per-environment verdict. Bishop Fox says its red team work lets customers face the tactics real adversaries use and see how their team responds. Bishop Fox customizes its reporting, weekly status reports, and post-engagement reviews to the unique needs of the customer's organization.[12][13]

Cosmos is Bishop Fox's cloud-native technology platform and the foundation of its offensive security services. Cosmos is built on stateless microservices that auto scale to enterprise volumes, continuously discovers external assets, and routes high-confidence findings into an expert human validation pipeline. Cosmos builds and verifies a living inventory of an organization's external attack surface. Cosmos runs daily automations that validate reachability and protocol behavior so customers see only verified, visible assets. Cosmos captures evidence in the form of technology fingerprints, screenshots, and service metadata. Cosmos uses tenant- and organization-level cloud connectors. Cosmos integrates with customer workflows through Jira and ServiceNow, syncing validated findings into existing ticketing systems. Validated outputs are surfaced through the Bishop Fox Portal, which provides an asset inventory, confirmed findings, indicators of exposure, and a triage workflow integrated with customer ticketing and collaboration systems. Bishop Fox operates and manages Cosmos as part of its services, and customers do not deploy or maintain the platform themselves.[7]

Bishop Fox built AIMap, an open-source tool that discovers, scores, and tests exposed AI endpoints. Sliver is a cross-platform general purpose implant framework. Sliver supports asymmetrically encrypted C2 over DNS, HTTP, HTTPS, and Mutual TLS.

Bishop Fox says it helps customers who are looking to safely deploy AI, release a new app or service, or validate corporate governance. A healthcare technology company moving to SaaS needed to validate its multi-tenant cloud platform, secure connected device provisioning, and maintain visibility across a growing attack surface. An energy provider faces constant threats from nation-state actors targeting critical infrastructure. Equifax runs year-round perimeter testing to safeguard high-value data. Zoom used continuous attack surface monitoring to protect its expanding platform. Apollo selected Bishop Fox to perform a Google Security Assessment of its application, external perimeter, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environment. John Deere relied on in-depth product security reviews and ongoing protection through a managed offensive security platform. Ventrilo.ai partnered with Bishop Fox for application penetration testing and AI security assessments. A financial services organization tested Bishop Fox's Cosmos AI platform against a realistic application.[7][9][13]

Bishop Fox on the record

Sources

Bishop Fox full record

  1. [1]bishopfox.comBishop Fox · bishopfox.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]ContactBishop Fox · bishopfox.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Bishop Fox | The leading authority in offensive security… | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Offensive Security: Penetration Testing Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Continuous Security Testing Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Red Team Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cosmos Technology Platform | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Offensive Security Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Application Penetration Testing Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]External Penetration Testing for Network Security | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Hardware Security Assessments and Product Security… | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Bishop Fox | Tactics of Deception: Protecting Trust and PurposeBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Explore Customers of Our Offensive Security Solutions | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Bishop Fox Redefines Offensive Security at Scale with AI-Augmented Penetration TestingBishop Fox · published February 10, 2026 · Tier A

IANS full record

  1. [1]ians.comIANS · ians.com · undated page, accessed October 16, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Security program assessmentsIANS · ians.com · undated page, accessed October 16, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]About IANS — who we are and what we believe | IANSIANS · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]IANS — The intelligence platform for security leadersIANS · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]2024 Security Budgets: Data From 755 CISOsIANS · published September 5, 2024 · Tier A
  6. [6]IANS 2025 Security Budget Benchmark ReportIANS · published August 5, 2025 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cybersecurity Salaries 2026: Staff Pay and Retention DataIANS · published March 31, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Webinar: Where to Deploy AI Across Your SecOps TeamIANS · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]IANS Launches News Offering and Reinvents Its Platform for How Security Leaders Work TodayIANS · published March 31, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]IANS Launches the First Cybersecurity MCP Server Delivering Practitioner-Validated Intelligence Directly into Clients' Native AI ToolsIANS · published July 15, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]IANS appoints Dan Klein as Executive Vice President, Faculty and Professional Services to Support Faculty and Consulting Services GrowthIANS · published February 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Terms of Service | IANSIANS · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]MCP Data Privacy & Security | IANSIANS · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]IANS Cybersecurity Commitment | IANSIANS · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]2025 Staff Pay Data From 525+ Infosec ProfessionalsIANS · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]New CRO to Help IANS Expand Practitioner-Sourced Intelligence, Peer Insight, and AI-Ready Guidance for Security TeamsIANS · published August 25, 2026 · Tier A

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