CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Coalfire vs Red Canary

Coalfire sells advisory, audit and assessment services. Red Canary, now part of Zscaler, sells Managed Detection & Response (MDR), a service that taps in-house experts to detect, manage, respond to, and remediate threats at scale. CISO Tribune files both under MDR and managed SOC. 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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Up to four companies side by side.

  • Coalfire
  • Red Canary
Coalfire vs Red Canary: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CoalfireCoalfire sells advisory, audit and assessment services.coalfire.comRed CanaryRed Canary, now part of Zscaler, sells Managed Detection & Response (MDR), a service that taps in-house experts to detect, manage, respond to, and remediate threats at scale.redcanary.com
What it sells
  • Compliance Essentials[3]A SaaS platform that enterprises use to manage complex compliance programs and audit cycles.
  • Hexeon[3]A platform combining high-frequency offensive pen testing with strategic defensive risk management.
  • DivisionHex[3]A team of offensive, defensive and managed cybersecurity experts.
  • Advisory, Audit, and Assessment services[3]Services that cover the professional services layer of Coalfire.
  • AI Security and Trust Engineering[4]Services that help companies design, build and operate AI systems that meet compliance targets.
  • Managed Detection & Response (MDR)[3]Taps in-house experts to detect, manage, respond to, and remediate threats at scale.
Categories
Headquarters
Chicago, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesOwned by Zscaler since 2025[2][3][4]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[7]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen October 27, 2026[4]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Coalfire states that it helps boards and C-level executives identify their critical assets, potential vulnerabilities and which risks to address. Coalfire offers responsible AI governance for healthcare and regulated organizations. Coalfire provides independent audit support for CMS-regulated entities. Coalfire's AI Security and Trust Engineering services are aimed at companies that design, build and operate AI systems.From its own pages, Red Canary sells mainly to security operations teams that need to scale protection without adding headcount. Its service is aimed at organizations whose attack surface spans networks, endpoints, identities, cloud infrastructure, and AI applications. Organizations that run AWS, GCP, or Azure environments are covered by its cloud detection. Teams that use a SIEM, SOAR, or ITSM platform can send alerts into those workflows.
Last verified
November 2, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Coalfire and Red Canary are both filed under MDR and managed SOC.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Coalfire's primary category is Security consulting and advisory; Red Canary's is MDR and managed SOC.
  • Coalfire is also filed under Penetration testing and red team services and Compliance automation. Red Canary is also filed under Threat intelligence.
  • Coalfire lists Compliance Essentials, Hexeon, DivisionHex, Advisory, Audit, and Assessment services and AI Security and Trust Engineering. Red Canary lists Managed Detection & Response (MDR).
  • Coalfire is headquartered in Chicago, United States.
  • Red Canary is owned by Zscaler, since 2025.

What it sells: Coalfire

What Compliance Essentials does[3]
Compliance Essentials supports coordinated assessments for over 75 frameworks using Coalfire's proprietary controls mapping. Data is provided to Compliance Essentials by the organization's assessment users. Compliance Essentials carries the certifications ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701 and SOC 2 Type 2.
What Hexeon does[3]
The Hexeon platform combines high-frequency offensive pen testing with strategic defensive risk management. Hexeon uses data collected by Coalfire offensive security teams, such as penetration testing findings, vulnerability data and other data concerning technical risk.
What Advisory, Audit, and Assessment services does[3]
Coalfire's Advisory, Audit, and Assessment services cover the professional services layer of the company. Coalfire's Advisory expertise specializes in GRC, AI cloud engineering, healthcare risk and FedRAMP. Coalfire assesses, simplifies and provides guidance across PCI DSS, HITRUST, ISO, FedRAMP and 85+ frameworks.
What AI Security and Trust Engineering does[4]
Coalfire's AI Security and Trust Engineering services help companies design, build and operate AI systems that meet compliance targets. The services deploy AI agents to enhance security and compliance operations. Coalfire has a framework to secure AI systems end-to-end for compliance and risk mitigation.

What it sells: Red Canary

What Managed Detection & Response (MDR) does[3]
Managed Detection & Response (MDR) uses in-house experts, AI agents, and deep ZIA integration. Alerts can be sent to a SIEM, SOAR, or ITSM platform.

Questions about Coalfire and Red Canary

What do Coalfire and Red Canary sell?
Coalfire sells Compliance Essentials, Hexeon, DivisionHex, Advisory, Audit, and Assessment services and AI Security and Trust Engineering. Red Canary sells Managed Detection & Response (MDR).
Are Coalfire and Red Canary in the same category?
They share MDR and managed SOC. Coalfire's primary category is Security consulting and advisory and Red Canary's is MDR and managed SOC.
Where are Coalfire and Red Canary headquartered?
Coalfire is headquartered in Chicago, United States.
Who owns Coalfire and Red Canary?
Red Canary is owned by Zscaler, since 2025.
Who are Coalfire and Red Canary sold to?
Coalfire states that it helps boards and C-level executives identify their critical assets, potential vulnerabilities and which risks to address. From its own pages, Red Canary sells mainly to security operations teams that need to scale protection without adding headcount.

About Coalfire

Coalfire sells advisory, audit and assessment services.[1][3]

Coalfire's Advisory, Audit, and Assessment services cover the professional services layer of the company. Coalfire's Advisory expertise specializes in GRC, AI cloud engineering, healthcare risk and FedRAMP. Coalfire assesses, simplifies and provides guidance across PCI DSS, HITRUST, ISO, FedRAMP and 85+ frameworks.[3]

Compliance Essentials supports coordinated assessments for over 75 frameworks using Coalfire's proprietary controls mapping. Data is provided to Compliance Essentials by the organization's assessment users. Compliance Essentials carries the certifications ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701 and SOC 2 Type 2.[3]

The Hexeon platform combines high-frequency offensive pen testing with strategic defensive risk management. Hexeon uses data collected by Coalfire offensive security teams, such as penetration testing findings, vulnerability data and other data concerning technical risk.[3]

Coalfire's AI Security and Trust Engineering services help companies design, build and operate AI systems that meet compliance targets. Coalfire's AI Security and Trust Engineering services deploy AI agents to enhance security and compliance operations. Coalfire has a framework to secure AI systems end-to-end for compliance and risk mitigation. Coalfire's Secure Agent Construct maps to AWS services to implement proper isolation, permissions, and feedback loops.[1][4]

For healthcare and federal programs, Coalfire offers end-to-end advisory for entities within the CMS environment, including readiness assessments and System Security and Privacy Plan development. Coalfire provides independent audit support for CMS-regulated entities, helping organizations demonstrate compliance with ARC-AMPE-AE and related federal security and privacy requirements. Coalfire conducts Privacy Impact Analyses for CMS entities and their contractors. Coalfire delivers automated and manual accessibility testing that meets federal standards. Coalfire provides HITRUST support across the full lifecycle, including gap assessments, policy development, remediation guidance, interim assessments and recertification. Coalfire delivers a workshop-based vendor risk program design built on three pillars: vendor criticality categorization, policy and procedure enhancement, and an SCRM tabletop exercise.[5]

Coalfire offers a unified approach to AI compliance across HITRUST and ISO 42001. The unified AI compliance offering combines readiness assessments, documentation development, remediation support, coordinated assessments, and continuous AI compliance monitoring. Coalfire provides responsible AI governance for healthcare and regulated organizations. Coalfire vCISO services provide program oversight, roadmap development, executive and board reporting, risk leadership, and incident readiness support. Coalfire advisors lead executive tabletop exercises, conduct business impact analysis, and build downtime continuity plans. Coalfire training offerings include incident response training, compliance and privacy training, and executive and board tabletop exercises.[5]

Coalfire helps boards and C-level executives identify their critical assets, potential vulnerabilities, and what risks to address based on business objectives. Dr. Adrian Mayers, Global CISO at Premera, is a Coalfire client. Coalfire released a SOC2 Type 2 report covering the examination period of 3/1/2025 to 2/28/2026. The Coalfire Cybersecurity team and DivHex are finalizing certification to the CyberEssentials Plus standards.[1][3][5][6]

Coalfire on the record

Sources

Coalfire full record

  1. [1]coalfire.comCoalfire · coalfire.com · undated page, accessed November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Coalfires managed and transformation services will deliver security at scaleCoalfire · coalfire.com · published August 4, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Coalfire Trust Center | Powered by ConveyorCoalfire · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Coalfire AI Security and Trust Engineering™ | CoalfireCoalfire · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Healthcare Advisory Services | CoalfireCoalfire · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Cybersecurity and Compliance Services | CoalfireCoalfire · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Coalfire Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & FeaturesG2 · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier C

Red Canary full record

  1. [1]redcanary.comRed Canary · redcanary.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Zscaler completes acquisition red canary accelerate innovations agentic ai driven securityZscaler · zscaler.com · published August 1, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]Zscaler Managed Detection & Response (MDR) | ZscalerZscaler · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Zscaler Sec Ops Pricing - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier C

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