CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Halo Security vs UpGuard

Halo Security sells penetration testing and continuous visibility across an attack surface, bringing testing, discovery, and scanning together. UpGuard sells tools that move third-party risk monitoring from static snapshots to continuous oversight. CISO Tribune files both under External attack surface management. 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
  • UpGuard
Halo Security vs UpGuard: 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.comUpGuardUpGuard sells tools that move third-party risk monitoring from static snapshots to continuous oversight.upguard.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.
  • User Risk[1][5][10]Human risk management that gives visibility into human risk and enables safe AI adoption.
  • Risk Automations[1][10]Risk automation that connects a risk stack to system APIs to automate discovery, notification and remediation.
  • Questionnaire AI[11]Automatically completes questionnaires using a customer's own security documentation.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesHobart, Australia[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2012[2]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[2][3]
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[3]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Not written yetNot written yet
Last verified
November 12, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Halo Security and UpGuard are both filed under External attack surface management.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Halo Security's primary category is Penetration testing and red team services; UpGuard's is Third-party risk and security ratings.
  • Halo Security is also filed under Vulnerability management and Digital risk protection. UpGuard is also filed under Human risk management.
  • Halo Security lists Penetration Testing, Attack Surface Management and Application Scanning. UpGuard lists User Risk, Risk Automations and Questionnaire AI.
  • UpGuard is headquartered in Hobart, Australia.
  • UpGuard was founded in 2012.
  • UpGuard is privately held.

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: UpGuard

What User Risk does[1][5][10]
User Risk continuously detects unsanctioned applications running across a workforce and exposes over-privileged permissions and credential leaks. User Risk nudges employees mid-workflow and redirects them to approved corporate alternatives. User Risk sits in the browser and blocks unauthorized file uploads and copy-pastes.
What Risk Automations does[1][10]
UpGuard describes risk automation that connects a risk stack to system APIs to automate discovery, notification and remediation. The offering automates discovery, notification and resolution by integrating a risk stack.
What Questionnaire AI does[11]
Questionnaire AI automatically completes questionnaires using a customer's own security documentation. Customers upload documents such as a SOC 2 report, an information security report and previously completed questionnaires.

Questions about Halo Security and UpGuard

What do Halo Security and UpGuard sell?
Halo Security sells Penetration Testing, Attack Surface Management and Application Scanning. UpGuard sells User Risk, Risk Automations and Questionnaire AI.
Are Halo Security and UpGuard in the same category?
They share External attack surface management. Halo Security's primary category is Penetration testing and red team services and UpGuard's is Third-party risk and security ratings.
Where are Halo Security and UpGuard headquartered?
UpGuard is headquartered in Hobart, Australia.
When were Halo Security and UpGuard founded?
UpGuard was founded in 2012.
Who owns Halo Security and UpGuard?
UpGuard is privately held.

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

UpGuard full record

  1. [1]upguard.comUpGuard · upguard.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Upguard raises 75m in series c funding to accelerate market leadership in cyber risk posture managementUpGuard · upguard.com · published February 26, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]UpGuard Vendor Risk Reviews & Product DetailsG2 · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier C
  4. [4]Continuous Third-Party Risk Monitoring | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]The #1 Cyber Risk Posture Management Platform | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Pricing For The UpGuard CRPM Platform | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Third-party Risk Assessment Software | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Lucid Security Rating & Data Breaches | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]GiftPay Security Rating & Data Breaches | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]User Risk: A Human Risk Management Platform | UpGuardUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Free AI-Powered Security Questionnaires Done in MinutesUpGuard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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