CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Censys vs Parsons

Censys supports investigations with real-time Internet infrastructure visibility and historical context. Parsons is a global solutions provider in the national security and critical infrastructure markets that delivers integrated program management solutions. CISO Tribune files both under Threat intelligence. 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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  • Censys
  • Parsons
Censys vs Parsons: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CensysCensys supports investigations with real-time Internet infrastructure visibility and historical context.censys.comParsonsParsons is a global solutions provider in the national security and critical infrastructure markets that delivers integrated program management solutions.parsons.com
What it sells
  • Censys Platform[3][8][17][18][19][20][21]Delivers visibility and intelligence for triage, threat investigation, adversary hunting and Internet exposure management.
  • Censys ASM[8]Reveals Internet-facing assets, services and exposures across all 65,535 ports.
  • Adversary Investigation[3][4][5][9][17][19]An add-on module to the Censys Platform to detect, analyze and track threat infrastructure.
  • cencli[20]A command line tool for running search queries, looking up assets and performing aggregations.
  • Cyber Fly-Away KitsKits called C-FLAK for cyber defenders.
  • Digital Overwatch[4]A suite of applications, pipelines, analytics, and visual components.
  • Dynamic Spectrum Environment Emulator (DYSE)A RF channel emulator that imitates realistic RF environments.
  • Threat Representative Environment (TReX)A software and COTS hardware-based signal and channel emulator.
  • Wireless Instrumented Streaming Platform (WISP)A portable, remotely controlled wideband RF data capture and analysis tool.
  • Tactical Edge Electro-Magnetic Sensor (TEMS)A real time situational awareness plugin for ATAK.
  • ER310 Software-Defined RadioA handheld SDR platform designed to host and execute RF applications.
Categories
Headquarters
Ann Arbor, United States[2][21]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2017[1]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
  • September 22, 2026Censys announced an expanded global Channel Partner Program and investments to accelerate its channel-first growth strategy.[14]
  • July 22, 2026Censys announced record first half 2026 growth, reflecting growing enterprise adoption of Internet intelligence.[13]
  • July 8, 2026Censys expanded its Internet Map to include real-time DNS visibility.[25]
  • June 18, 2026Censys announced its expansion into security operations, enabling organizations to use its internet intelligence across security workflows.[26]
  • June 18, 2026Censys announced its expansion into security operations, enabling organizations to use its Internet intelligence across security workflows.[12]
  • January 15, 2026Parsons Corporation announced it has acquired Altamira Technologies Corporation in a transaction valued at up to $375 million.[14]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[6]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[2]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Censys sells to private and public sector security teams. Censys describes a plan for threat hunting and CTI teams looking to hunt, track and engineer detections for adversary campaigns and infrastructure. Censys describes a plan for enterprises that want to use Censys data across alert triage, IR, threat intel and detection engineering. Censys offers purpose-built internet intelligence with specialized datasets for government specific investigations and exposure management requirements. Censys offers Single Sign-On through a SAML-based integration to Enterprise and Government users.From its own pages, Parsons sells mainly to national security and critical infrastructure customers. Parsons says TReX supports various DoD, IC, and Defense Industrial Base partners. Parsons describes its Ares biometric software as designed for defense and law enforcement. Parsons describes LandForm X as an ISR mission management system designed for airborne law enforcement and search and rescue. Parsons describes Foundation as a cloud-native data integration platform built to address the complexities of government operations.
Last verified
September 27, 2026October 14, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Censys and Parsons are both filed under Threat intelligence.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Censys's primary category is External attack surface management; Parsons's is Threat intelligence.
  • Parsons is also filed under Incident response and forensics, OT and ICS security and Vulnerability management.
  • Censys lists Censys Platform, Censys ASM, Adversary Investigation and cencli. Parsons lists Cyber Fly-Away Kits, Digital Overwatch, Dynamic Spectrum Environment Emulator (DYSE), Threat Representative Environment (TReX), Wireless Instrumented Streaming Platform (WISP) and 2 more.
  • Censys is headquartered in Ann Arbor, United States.
  • Censys was founded in 2017.

What it sells: Censys

What Censys Platform does[3][8][17][18][19][20][21]
Censys Platform has API endpoints for integrating Platform functionality with a customer tech stack. Censys Platform uses a language called Censys Query Language. Censys Platform includes a web property dataset covering name-based assets on the internet, including websites, APIs and web-based applications.
What Censys ASM does[8]
Censys ASM uses first-party scanning to find Internet-exposed assets, including services on nonstandard ports, self-signed certificates, hosts in residential networks and dangling DNS records. Censys ASM sends alerts on changes such as new hosts and services, open ports and reissued certificates. Censys ranks risks by severity, category and affected asset.
What Adversary Investigation does[3][4][5][9][17][19]
The Adversary Investigation module is an add-on to the Censys Platform for organizations to detect, analyze and track threat infrastructure. Actions that use CensEye to discover related infrastructure for a host, web property or certificate are only available to users with access to the Adversary Investigation module.

What it sells: Parsons

What Cyber Fly-Away Kits does
Parsons calls these products Cyber-Fly-Away Kits (C-FLAK). Parsons says the kits have everything a cyber defender needs to efficiently achieve mission success.
What Digital Overwatch does[4]
Digital Overwatch is a suite of applications, pipelines, analytics, and visual components. Parsons says the suite enables successful mission execution.
What Dynamic Spectrum Environment Emulator (DYSE) does
DYSE is a RF channel emulator that seeks to imitate realistic RF environments, including congested and contested conditions. RF paths in DYSE can be individually programmable and emulate the impact of real-world operational conditions in a lab environment.
What Threat Representative Environment (TReX) does
TReX is a software and COTS hardware-based signal and channel emulator. Parsons describes TReX as a way to experiment, train, and plan SIGINT and EW operations. Parsons says TReX can be deployed anywhere from a laboratory to austere environments.
What Wireless Instrumented Streaming Platform (WISP) does
WISP is a portable, remotely controlled wideband RF data capture and analysis tool. WISP uses include wireless signal capture, an arbitrary signal generator, and frequency translation for both R&D and field-based operations.
What Tactical Edge Electro-Magnetic Sensor (TEMS) does
TEMS is a real time situational awareness plugin for Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK). TEMS detects RF spectrum energy in the user's environment and can be controlled using a smart phone.
What ER310 Software-Defined Radio does
The ER310 software-defined radio is a handheld SDR platform designed to host and execute RF applications. Parsons says it supports missions including assured PNT, RF situational awareness support, electronic warfare, and communications.

Questions about Censys and Parsons

What do Censys and Parsons sell?
Censys sells Censys Platform, Censys ASM, Adversary Investigation and cencli. Parsons sells Cyber Fly-Away Kits, Digital Overwatch, Dynamic Spectrum Environment Emulator (DYSE), Threat Representative Environment (TReX), Wireless Instrumented Streaming Platform (WISP) and 2 more.
Are Censys and Parsons in the same category?
They share Threat intelligence. Censys's primary category is External attack surface management and Parsons's is Threat intelligence.
Where are Censys and Parsons headquartered?
Censys is headquartered in Ann Arbor, United States.
When were Censys and Parsons founded?
Censys was founded in 2017.
Who are Censys and Parsons sold to?
From its own pages, Censys sells to private and public sector security teams. From its own pages, Parsons sells mainly to national security and critical infrastructure customers.
What have Censys and Parsons announced recently?
September 22, 2026: Censys announced an expanded global Channel Partner Program and investments to accelerate its channel-first growth strategy. January 15, 2026: Parsons Corporation announced it has acquired Altamira Technologies Corporation in a transaction valued at up to $375 million.

About Censys

Censys supports investigations with real-time Internet infrastructure visibility and historical context. Censys supports tracking attacker infrastructure and uncovering related assets. Censys supports discovering unknown assets, identifying critical risks and protecting an external attack surface. Censys supports identifying third-party risk by continuously monitoring supplier Internet exposure. Censys names Global 2000 enterprises and governments as the organizations that choose it for Security Operations and Exposure Management. Censys ARC publishes original research covering emerging threats, attacker infrastructure, vulnerabilities and Internet-wide exposure.[8][10]

Censys ASM reveals Internet-facing assets, services and exposures across all 65,535 ports, using the Censys Internet Map. Censys maps the global internet across all 65K ports to show what attackers, customers and regulators can see. Censys ASM uses first-party scanning to find Internet-exposed assets, including services on nonstandard ports, self-signed certificates, hosts in residential networks and dangling DNS records. Censys maps the JavaScript libraries, web technologies and plugins running across an environment, then detects and flags the vulnerabilities and risks present.[8][16]

Censys ASM monitors a surface continuously and sends alerts on changes such as new hosts and services, open ports and reissued certificates. Censys ranks risks by severity, category and affected asset. Censys ASM integrates with ticketing, SIEM, vulnerability management and other tooling to auto-create, route and track remediation tasks. The Censys Assistant takes plain-language questions about an inventory, such as which CVEs affect it or which cloud providers are in use, and generates executive-ready reports on demand.[8]

Censys Platform has API endpoints for integrating Platform functionality with a customer tech stack. Censys Platform uses a language called Censys Query Language. Censys Platform includes a web property dataset covering name-based assets on the internet, including websites, APIs and web-based applications. Collections let users track and monitor the results of a Censys query over time. The Adversary Investigation module is an add-on to the Censys Platform for organizations to detect, analyze and track threat infrastructure. Censys offers CensEye for automated pivoting jobs that find assets related to an IP, web property or certificate. Censys offers the cencli command line tool for running search queries, looking up assets and performing aggregations.[4][9][17][18][19][20]

Censys Platform data can enrich IPs, web properties and certificates in Google SecOps. Censys has an Attack Surface Management (ASM) integration with Google SecOps. Censys integrates natively with many SIEM, SOAR, TIP and other security tools. API access is included across all Censys tiers.[19]

Censys Credits power searches, lookups and other actions within the Censys Platform. Censys sets Starter plans to begin at 500 credits, and Enterprise customers use credits only for API usage. Censys Platform access is organised in Censys Free, Censys Starter, Censys Search and Censys Core tiers. Censys describes a plan for threat hunting and CTI teams looking to hunt, track and engineer detections for adversary campaigns and infrastructure. Censys describes a further plan for enterprises that want to use Censys data across alert triage, IR, threat intel and detection engineering. Censys offers Single Sign-On through a SAML-based integration to Enterprise and Government users. Censys offers purpose-built internet intelligence with specialized datasets for government specific investigations and exposure management requirements.[20]

Censys created fast Internet scanning at the University of Michigan and released the ZMap open source scanner. Censys introduced Censys Search and data downloads, initially scanning 16 popular Internet protocols. Censys evolved from a research project into a free-standing company. Censys architected a new scan engine with proprietary scanning technology. Censys goes to market in Nordics, France, Australia, Singapore, Japan and more. Censys says it empowers private and public sector security teams.[4][5][8][9][10][11][16]

Censys on the record

Sources

Censys full record

  1. [1]Censys introduces the ground truth for internet intelligence the censys internet map 301938734Censys via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published September 26, 2023 · Tier A
  2. [2]CareersCensys · censys.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Censys | The Authority for Internet Intelligence and InsightsCensys · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Platform API Transition GuideCensys · published October 5, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]SAML AuthenticationCensys · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Censys Attack Surface Management Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  7. [7]Censys Search - CensysCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Censys | Attack Surface Management | Internet VisibilityCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Adversary Investigation - CensysCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Critical Infrastructure Monitoring - CensysCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Trusted by Global Leaders for VisibilityCensys · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Censys Expands Into Security Operations with Internet Intelligence-Powered WorkflowsCensys · published June 18, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Censys Delivers Record First Half 2026 Growth as AI Driven Demand for Internet Intelligence AcceleratesCensys · published July 22, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Censys Transforms Global Channel Program to Accelerate Partner-Led GrowthCensys · published September 22, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Censys Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier C
  16. [16]Censys | External Exposure Management & Attack Surface MappingCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Platform API Transition GuideCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Platform FAQsCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]Google SecOps SOAR IntegrationCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  20. [20]Platform CLI ToolCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  21. [21]Pricing | CensysCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  22. [22]Censys Built by Cybersecurity Experts for Real-Time Threat IntelligenceCensys · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  23. [23]Censys Unveils Censys ARC, Formalizing Its Global Internet Threat Research TeamCensys · published March 10, 2026 · Tier A
  24. [24]Censys Powers SOC Modernization with Real-Time Internet Context and Risk ScoringCensys · published April 9, 2026 · Tier A
  25. [25]Censys Expands Its Internet Map to Include DNS IntelligenceCensys · published July 8, 2026 · Tier A
  26. [26]Censys Expands Into Security Operations with Internet Intelligence-Powered WorkflowsCensys · published June 18, 2026 · Tier A

Parsons full record

  1. [1]CyberParsons Corporation · parsons.com · undated page, accessed October 14, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Parsons Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier C
  3. [3]Parsons CorporationParsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Products | Parsons CorporationParsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]RF Channel Emulator | DYSEParsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]SIGINT And Electronic Warfare Channel Emulator | TReX®Parsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Wideband RF Data Capture | WISP™Parsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Assured Positioning, Navigation And Timing (APNT) | APSParsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Software-Defined Radio | ER310™Parsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Tactical Edge Electro-Magnetic Sensor | TEMS™Parsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Asset Management Solution | Paradim®Parsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Full-Lifecycle Flight-Dynamics Capabilities | SatFlyer™Parsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Space Access | Parsons ProductsParsons · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Parsons Acquires Altamira Technologies CorporationParsons Corporation · published January 15, 2026 · Tier A

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