CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Halo Security vs UnderDefense

Halo Security sells penetration testing and continuous visibility across an attack surface, bringing testing, discovery, and scanning together. UnderDefense sells UnderDefense MAXI, a security and compliance automation platform, and an MDR service in which security experts monitor, detect and respond to incidents. 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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  • Halo Security
  • UnderDefense
Halo Security vs UnderDefense: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Halo SecurityHalo Security sells penetration testing and continuous visibility across an attack surface, bringing testing, discovery, and scanning together.halosecurity.comUnderDefenseUnderDefense sells UnderDefense MAXI, a security and compliance automation platform, and an MDR service in which security experts monitor, detect and respond to incidents.underdefense.com
What it sells
  • Penetration Testing[1][2][3][11]Halo Security tests web and mobile applications, APIs, external and internal networks, and wireless environments.
  • Attack Surface Management[1][2]Helps organizations discover and monitor the assets they expose to the internet.
  • Application Scanning[5]Scans web applications for vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.
  • UnderDefense MAXI[1][2][3][5][6]A security and compliance automation platform. UnderDefense MAXI integrates with SIEMs, firewalls and endpoint protection solutions.
  • UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC[4]AI agents investigate each alert. Analysts on shift 24/7 decide what happens next.
  • MDR[1][2][6]Security experts monitor, detect and respond to incidents.
  • Cloud-based SIEM[2]A cloud-based SIEM that collects, analyzes and responds to security events.
  • CIS AWS Benchmark assessment[8]A self-service assessment of AWS security.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot 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
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[10]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Not written yetUnderDefense MAXI integrates with a customer's security infrastructure, including SIEMs, firewalls and endpoint protection solutions. UnderDefense offers compliance templates to organizations working toward standards such as SOC2 and ISO 27001. UnderDefense MAXI provides executive-level reports for C-level readers.
Last verified
November 12, 2026October 26, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Halo Security and UnderDefense are both filed under Penetration testing and red team services.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Halo Security's primary category is Penetration testing and red team services; UnderDefense's is MDR and managed SOC.
  • Halo Security is also filed under External attack surface management, Vulnerability management and Digital risk protection. UnderDefense is also filed under Compliance automation and SOAR and security automation.
  • Halo Security lists Penetration Testing, Attack Surface Management and Application Scanning. UnderDefense lists UnderDefense MAXI, UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC, MDR, Cloud-based SIEM and CIS AWS Benchmark assessment.

What it sells: Halo Security

What Penetration Testing does[1][2][3][11]
Halo Security's penetration testing service combines manual investigation with tools whose results are validated by testers. Halo Security tests web and mobile applications, APIs, external and internal networks, and wireless environments. Halo Security offers social engineering and red teaming. An included round of retesting lets customers verify their remediation work.
What Attack Surface Management does[1][2]
Attack surface management covers internet-exposed assets, including websites, APIs, servers, and cloud services. Halo Security continuously checks those assets for vulnerabilities and changes. Halo Security finds and inventories internet-facing assets, including unknown and forgotten websites, IPs, services, and applications.

What it sells: UnderDefense

What UnderDefense MAXI does[1][2][3][5][6]
UnderDefense MAXI natively monitors endpoints, networks, users and decoy beacons. UnderDefense MAXI provides ready-to-use playbooks, AI-powered alert enrichment and notifications through Slack, Jira or a preferred tool. UnderDefense MAXI provides pre-built compliance templates for standards such as SOC2 and ISO 27001.
What UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC does[4]
UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC uses AI agents that investigate each alert. Analysts on shift 24/7 decide what happens next.
What CIS AWS Benchmark assessment does[8]
UnderDefense offers a self-service CIS AWS Benchmark assessment. The assessment covers evaluating the maturity of cloud security controls, identifying misconfigurations, providing detailed mitigation instructions and giving a summary table with a final CVSS v3.0 score.

Questions about Halo Security and UnderDefense

What do Halo Security and UnderDefense sell?
Halo Security sells Penetration Testing, Attack Surface Management and Application Scanning. UnderDefense sells UnderDefense MAXI, UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC, MDR, Cloud-based SIEM and CIS AWS Benchmark assessment.
Are Halo Security and UnderDefense in the same category?
They share Penetration testing and red team services. Halo Security's primary category is Penetration testing and red team services and UnderDefense's is MDR and managed SOC.
Who are Halo Security and UnderDefense sold to?
UnderDefense MAXI integrates with a customer's security infrastructure, including SIEMs, firewalls and endpoint protection solutions.

About Halo Security

Halo Security sells penetration testing and continuous visibility across an attack surface, bringing testing, discovery, and scanning together. Halo Security tests web and mobile applications, APIs, external and internal networks, and wireless environments. Halo Security offers social engineering and red teaming. Halo Security's penetration testing service combines manual investigation with tools whose results are validated by testers.[1][2][3]

Halo Security's ethical hackers explore how an attacker could get in, what they could reach, and how to close the gap. Customers work directly with US-based experts at Halo Security. Halo Security includes one round of retesting so customers can verify their remediation work. Halo Security provides reports and attestation letters that give a customer's team, auditor, and prospects evidence of its security. Halo Security reports support SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI, and other compliance needs.[1][2]

Attack surface management helps organizations discover and monitor the assets they expose to the internet, including websites, APIs, servers, and cloud services. Halo Security continuously checks those internet-exposed assets for vulnerabilities and changes. Halo Security finds and inventories internet-facing assets, including unknown and forgotten websites, IPs, services, and applications. Halo Security identifies open ports and internet-facing services so customers can monitor changes. Halo Security tracks certificates, security headers, third-party scripts, and other security controls across websites. Halo Security detects known vulnerabilities, missing security patches, and outdated software across external servers. Halo Security scans web applications for vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting. Halo Security monitors for leaked employee credentials, exposed data, and mentions of an organization on the dark web. Halo Security can identify issues like subdomain takeovers, domains for sale, forgotten projects, and misconfigured cloud services. Halo Security risk scores show the external security posture of different teams and business units.[1][2][4][5][11]

Halo Security is a PCI Security Standards Council Approved Scanning Vendor, and its certificate number is 5078-01-11. Halo Security customers can set scans to run daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or on-demand. Customers with multiple business units can generate separate reports in the Halo Security portal. Halo Security scans look at an organization from the outside, with nothing to install and nothing to configure.[6][7]

Halo Security connects to AWS to import assets from Route53, ElasticIP, and Elastic Load Balancer. Halo Security creates and tracks security issues in Jira, and it streams security events and findings into Splunk. Halo Security syncs security findings with Vanta for compliance monitoring and reporting, and it sends real-time security alerts to a Slack workspace. Brinqa ingests external attack surface findings directly from the Halo Security platform. Halo Security also runs a Security Review, offered quarterly or semi-annually, in which its team works with customers to identify gaps in their coverage.[8][9][10]

The Halo Security platform helps organizations of all sizes achieve PCI compliance. In 2013, the operation was spun out to form PathDefender, which was shortly thereafter rebranded as TrustedSite. In 2022, the TrustedSite Security services were rebranded as Halo Security, and the TrustedSite brand remains for certification and marketing solutions. Halo Security has a team of over 30 people. Halo Security was originally based in San Francisco and now offers fully remote working opportunities.[1][5][6][7][10][11]

Halo Security on the record

Sources

Halo Security full record

  1. [1]halosecurity.comHalo Security · halosecurity.com · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Trusted, US-Based Penetration Testing | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]12 Questions to Ask a Pentesting Company | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Attack Surface Management Features | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Assess security program effectiveness | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Achieve PCI Compliance | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]PCI Compliance Scanning from an ASV | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Integrations | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Halo Security + Brinqa: EASM Meets CTEMHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Security Review | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Customers | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]About Us | Halo SecurityHalo Security · undated page, accessed November 12, 2026 · Tier A

UnderDefense full record

  1. [1]underdefense.comUnderDefense · underdefense.com · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Compliance PricingUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Agentic AI SOC & Compliance Automation Platform | UnderDefenseUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Elastic Cloud Pricing 2026: Serverless, Hosted, and SIEMUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cloudflare Pricing 2026: WAF, Zero Trust, and EnterpriseUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Palo Alto Networks Pricing 2026: Firewalls, SASE, and XDRUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]2025 MXDR Pricing Guide: Choosing the Right MXDR providerUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Episode 4: Cyber Resilience 201 — AWS Cloud Security - UnderDefenseUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]E-Mail Under Attack - UnderDefenseUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]UnderDefense MAXI Reviews & Product DetailsG2 · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier C

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