CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Mindgard vs Orchid Security

Mindgard secures AI models, agents, and applications against exploitable threats. Orchid Security sells an identity-first security platform that discovers, analyzes, governs, and proves identity controls across applications. CISO Tribune files both under AI model and agent security. 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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  • Mindgard
  • Orchid Security
Mindgard vs Orchid Security: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
MindgardMindgard secures AI models, agents, and applications against exploitable threats.mindgard.aiOrchid SecurityOrchid Security sells an identity-first security platform that discovers, analyzes, governs, and proves identity controls across applications.orchid.security
What it sells
  • AI Red Teaming[1][4][6][10]Mindgard's agentic platform red teams AI systems, agents, and infrastructure.
  • AI Security Expert[9]A subscription that gives a team direct access to a specialist.
  • Orchid Security PlatformAn identity-first security platform that discovers, analyzes, governs, and proves identity controls across all applications.
  • Orchid Identity Audit[8]Continuous observability to identify Identity Dark Matter across all managed and unmanaged environments.
Categories
Headquarters
Boston, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2022[2][3]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately held[2][3]Not stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • August 13, 2026Mindgard announced a $30M Series A funding round.[11]
  • March 17, 2026Mindgard announced an expansion of its AI security platform that adds a reconnaissance capability for AI models, agents and applications.[12]
  • September 15, 2026Orchid Security unveiled AI readiness controls for AI agents, covering ongoing identity drift detection and kill switches operating at the application level.[14]
  • September 9, 2026Orchid Security announced identity drift detection and application-level kill switches for AI agents.[12]
  • May 28, 2026Orchid Security extended its Identity Control Plane with capabilities aimed at governing AI agents.[13]
  • February 5, 2026Orchid Security unveiled Identity Audit, which combines audit data from unmanaged applications with audit logs from governed IAM systems into a unified view of identity activity.[11]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Mindgard addresses organizations that secure the AI systems they build, buy and use. The offering is aimed at pen-testers who scale AI-focused security testing efforts, and at developers who integrate ongoing testing for secure AI deployments. Customer types shown include global insurance brokerages, healthcare AI platforms, global financial institutions, semiconductor manufacturers and enterprise technology services. Reporting is directed to security, engineering, GRC, and audit teams.From its own pages, Orchid Security sells mainly to teams in regulated industries under audit pressure and to identity programs with persistent blind spots. Orchid says it covers self-hosted and SaaS applications, along with cloud, on-prem, legacy, and custom-built applications. Orchid describes the risk of orphaned accounts left behind during an acquisition, so organisations that grow through acquisitions are among the buyers it addresses. Orchid integrates with existing IAM, PAM, and IGA tools rather than replacing them, so it speaks to organisations that already run those systems.
Last verified
September 27, 2026October 29, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Mindgard and Orchid Security are both filed under AI model and agent security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Mindgard's primary category is AI model and agent security; Orchid Security's is Identity governance and administration.
  • Mindgard is also filed under AI firewalls and guardrails. Orchid Security is also filed under Privileged access management and Non-human identity security.
  • Mindgard lists AI Red Teaming and AI Security Expert. Orchid Security lists Orchid Security Platform and Orchid Identity Audit.
  • Mindgard is headquartered in Boston, United States.
  • Mindgard was founded in 2022.
  • Mindgard is privately held.

What it sells: Mindgard

What AI Security Expert does[9]
The expert shows how to run posture assessments, enhance tooling usage, build adversarial skills, and co-pilot red teaming efforts. The subscription includes workshops that show security and data science teams how adversarial techniques work, how agentic systems fail, and how defensive controls can be applied.

What it sells: Orchid Security

What Orchid Security Platform does
Orchid discovers SaaS, cloud, on-prem, legacy, and custom-built applications automatically. Orchid analyzes authentication and authorization flows, detects risk, enforces policies, and automates remediation. Orchid integrates with existing IAM, PAM, and IGA tools to enhance visibility and governance.
What Orchid Identity Audit does[8]
Orchid Identity Audit maps identities across all applications, including those using legacy or retired domains. Orchid identifies high risk accounts that lack ownership or appear in dark web credential leaks. Orchid provides continuous evidence of decommissioned accounts.

Questions about Mindgard and Orchid Security

What do Mindgard and Orchid Security sell?
Mindgard sells AI Red Teaming and AI Security Expert. Orchid Security sells Orchid Security Platform and Orchid Identity Audit.
Are Mindgard and Orchid Security in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. Mindgard's primary category is AI model and agent security and Orchid Security's is Identity governance and administration.
Where are Mindgard and Orchid Security headquartered?
Mindgard is headquartered in Boston, United States.
When were Mindgard and Orchid Security founded?
Mindgard was founded in 2022.
Who owns Mindgard and Orchid Security?
Mindgard is privately held.
Who are Mindgard and Orchid Security sold to?
Mindgard addresses organizations that secure the AI systems they build, buy and use. From its own pages, Orchid Security sells mainly to teams in regulated industries under audit pressure and to identity programs with persistent blind spots.
What have Mindgard and Orchid Security announced recently?
August 13, 2026: Mindgard announced a $30M Series A funding round. September 15, 2026: Orchid Security unveiled AI readiness controls for AI agents, covering ongoing identity drift detection and kill switches operating at the application level.

About Mindgard

Mindgard secures AI models, agents, and applications against exploitable threats. Mindgard combines offensive security expertise, AI red teaming, attacker intelligence, and automated protection to help organizations discover, assess, and mitigate risk across AI models, agents, and applications. Mindgard was created from more than a decade of AI security research at Lancaster University. Mindgard was founded on pioneering research by Dr. Peter Garraghan at Lancaster University, which showed traditional AppSec could not address AI-specific risks. Mindgard's research has produced 150+ publicly disclosed AI vulnerabilities.[1][5]

The Mindgard AI security platform finds, validates, and fixes high-impact AI vulnerabilities. Mindgard operates as an autonomous red teamer, continuously mapping, planning, and executing complex, agentic attack workflows. Mindgard profiles AI systems the way attackers do, mapping models, agents, tools, and behaviors before attack execution. Mindgard automates recon and intelligence gathering on AI systems before adversarial testing to discover instructions, tools, and behaviors attackers can exploit. Mindgard identifies AI models, agents, MCP/A2A servers, connected tools, and shadow AI within products. Mindgard tests AI applications, agents and LLMs, including image, audio and multi-modal models. Mindgard uses reconnaissance and agentic attacks to identify how an attacker could manipulate an agent, access sensitive information, misuse tools, bypass controls, or chain weaknesses together.[1][4][13]

Mindgard validates which weaknesses are exploitable, explains their potential impact, and provides evidence and guidance to help teams close them. AI guardrails and firewalls apply policies to prompts, responses, or actions at runtime, and Mindgard tests whether those controls actually work. Mindgard assesses agents, tools, permissions, APIs, data, and infrastructure beyond the prompt layer. Mindgard evaluates and strengthens AI guardrails and WAF solutions against vulnerabilities.[1][13]

Mindgard deploys through CI/CD, Burp Suite, or a single click. Mindgard integrates into existing workflows with CI/CD automation and a Burp Suite extension. Mindgard uses APIs and integrations to secure models, agents, and AI applications across development and production environments. Mindgard routes findings through APIs, CI/CD, and enterprise workflow integrations into existing security tooling, ticketing systems, and engineering workflows. Mindgard integrates report viewing into existing systems and SIEM. Mindgard supports SAML/SSO, SCIM provisioning, and RBAC to align security testing with organizational compliance standards.[1][4][13][14][15]

Mindgard generates evidence, remediation guidance, and audit-ready reports mapped to OWASP, MITRE, NIST, and AIUC-1. Mindgard discovers and inventories AI applications, models, agents, and shadow AI across an entire environment. Mindgard prioritizes findings by severity, exposure, affected target, business context, and urgency of remediation. Mindgard gives security, engineering, GRC, and audit teams reporting they can use to demonstrate that AI risks and controls are being continuously evaluated. Security teams use Mindgard to discover and remediate high impact risk.[4][15]

Mindgard researchers attack AI systems the way a motivated adversary would, using prompt injection, agent hijacking, tool abuse, data extraction and guardrail bypass, chained into attack paths. Mindgard red teams the whole AI system, not just the model. A single LLM application typically takes two to three weeks from kickoff to report in a Mindgard AI pentest. Mindgard sells a dedicated Technical Account Manager as an annual subscription. Mindgard's AI Security Expert subscription gives a team direct access to a specialist. Mindgard training includes instructor-led workshops where teams build agents, test attacks, configure guardrails, and harden defenses.[6][7][8][9][10][13]

A US insurance brokerage used Mindgard to secure nine production AI models. Mindgard secured Fortune 500 design partners. Mindgard expanded its leadership with CEO James Brear, Head of Research Aaron Portnoy, and Offensive Security Lead Rich Smith. Mindgard lists SOC 2 Type 2. Mindgard says 86% of its staff are on the R&D team and 38% hold PhDs.[1][5][6][7][8][9][10][13][14]

Mindgard on the record

Sources

Mindgard full record

  1. [1]Mindgard - AI Red Teaming & AI Security SolutionsMindgard · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]About Mindgard: Offensive AI Security CompanyMindgard · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Mindgard raises 30 million to protect ai systemsSecurityWeek · securityweek.com · published August 12, 2026 · Tier B
  4. [4]AI Security Software: Advanced AI Testing Tools - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Security Services: Secure Agentic AI Systems - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Red Teaming Services for LLMs and Agents - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Penetration TestingMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AI Security Advisory Services for Enterprise AI - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Security Consulting Services for Enterprise AI - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]AI Security TrainingMindgard · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Mindgard Raises $30M Series AMindgard · published August 13, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Mindgard Unveils First Autonomous AI Security Platform To Identify And Fix Exploitable VulnerabilitiesBusiness Wire · published March 17, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Offensive Security Tool for AI Systems - MindgardMindgard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Mindgard vs Prompt SecurityMindgard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]AI Governance & ComplianceMindgard · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

Orchid Security full record

  1. [1]orchid.securityOrchid Security · orchid.security · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Ai readinessOrchid Security · orchid.security · published September 9, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Orchid - Identity Visibility and Intelligence for the Application LayerOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Bringing Clarity to the Complexity of IdentityOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Agentic AI Identity Security: Closing the Gaps Agents ExploitOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Identity Security Platform: Uncover Identity Dark MatterOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Beyond Shadow IT: The Identity Dark Matter Undermining ComplianceOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Security That Survives the Acquisition.Orchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Customer StoriesOrchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Why 50% of Identity Projects Fail (And How to Fix the "Blueprint")Orchid Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Orchid Launches Identity Audit to Illuminate the Dark Matter of Enterprise Identity ActivityOrchid Security · published February 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Orchid Security Adds AI Readiness Controls: Identity Drift Detection and Application-Level Kill Switches for AI AgentsGlobeNewswire · published September 9, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Orchid Security targets AI agent sprawl with new identity governance toolsSiliconANGLE · published May 28, 2026 · Tier B
  14. [14]Orchid Security Introduces AI Agent Readiness Controls Featuring Continuous Identity Monitoring and Kill-Switch CapabilitiesCSO Online · published September 15, 2026 · Tier B

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