About IANS
IANS is a practitioner-sourced intelligence engine where data, peer experience and expert insights converge for security teams. IANS has had a single focus on cybersecurity from the beginning. IANS describes itself as a cybersecurity research and advisory firm that provides services to support decision-making for CISOs and their cybersecurity teams. IANS was launched in 2000. IANS describes a proprietary intelligence platform that mines the collective experience of its CISO community and Faculty.[3][12]
IANS says its data comes from thousands of conversations between 170+ Faculty, who are security practitioners in the field, and CISO clients. IANS states that its vendor intelligence is based on facts and data. No vendor can become an IANS client. IANS uses AI to deliver answers from its practitioner-validated intelligence base of cybersecurity decisions.[3]
IANS offers the Ask-An-Expert service, which provides clients with unlimited access to seasoned cybersecurity professionals for guidance on various topics. Ask IANS is an AI Q&A service whose answers draw on a proprietary database of IANS Faculty expert advice. The Client Portal provides a library of research, tools and templates contributed by IANS Faculty. The IANS CISO Inquiry Community is an invitation-only service that lets CISOs gain insights and perspectives from a private community of their peers. IANS Faculty help executives communicate about cybersecurity risks and strategies to their teams and stakeholders. IANS provides briefings on the latest cybersecurity threats and technologies.[1][12]
IANS offers practitioner-based insights from IANS Faculty and industry peers covering aspects of the vendor management lifecycle. A privacy service from IANS includes an operational privacy framework, privacy toolkit, bi-monthly privacy briefings, regulation cheat sheets, and privacy communication slides. IANS provides access to daily content. IANS Faculty give live guidance on breaking cybersecurity events, incidents and breaches. IANS lets clients submit questions to a private peer community and receive insights in shared summaries. IANS offers an interactive, live setting in which to explore challenges with an IANS Faculty member. IANS also returns short, written responses from multiple faculty members on a topic.[12]
IANS acts as an adversary to identify and exploit weaknesses in client controls. IANS demonstrates adversary tactics and gives guidance to harden infrastructure. IANS offers an engagement to find the gaps in a client IR process, then test the plan against them. IANS delivers training through its Faculty practitioners to improve foundational skills and reduce knowledge gaps. IANS provides instruction with hands-on interactive labs, in multiple formats. IANS offers a personalized engagement with an executive coach from its Faculty line-up.[1]
IANS delivers its knowledge base via MCP into AI tools. For clients that license them, IANS offers data-as-a-service delivery of IANS proprietary content, including the IANS MCP Server. The IANS MCP server does not train or operate its own large language model. IANS does not use MCP log data to train AI models, and does not provide it to any third party for model training. Requests to speak with IANS Faculty can be submitted through the MCP.[1][12][13]
IANS protects data at rest with the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. IANS data removal process adheres to a decommissioning policy under GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act. IANS conducts annual penetration testing and monthly internal network and vulnerability scans through independent external parties. IANS and Artico Search surveyed more than 525 infosec professionals as part of the 2024 Staff Compensation and Satisfaction Survey. The 2025 Cybersecurity Staff Compensation Benchmark report draws on survey data gathered from June through the end of 2024. The report includes a breakdown of compensation for various roles across security functions and the factors that most impact compensation packages.[1][2][5][6][7][8][15]
IANS on the record