DefenseStorm Closes 2019 with 50% Customer Growth and Zero Attrition

Company begins 2020 with new president, new office and four new senior leaders

ALPHARETTA, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DefenseStorm, a leading cloud-based cybersecurity and cybercompliance management provider to regional and community banks and credit unions, announced record achievements in 2019 including maintaining zero attrition and beginning the new decade with 50% customer growth since the end of 2018.

One of these recent customers - Idaho Falls, Idaho-based Westmark Credit Union - cited DefenseStorm’s correlation, alerting and reporting capabilities as a primary reason for partnering with DefenseStorm in August. With a lean team and a dated logging solution, the credit union saw immediate benefits upon implementing DefenseStorm’s co-managed, cloud-based and compliance-automated GRID™ platform.

Enabling DefenseStorm to further develop the CyberSecurity and CyberCompliance capabilities of both its GRID and TRAC services offerings is a $15M investment from Georgian Partners that was announced in July. In addition to the capital investment, Georgian’s Impact Teams will be providing expertise in Applied Artificial Intelligence and Trust in order to further enhance the DefenseStorm offerings.

“We are starting the year strong and could not be more positive about the outlook of 2020,” said Steve Soukup, President of DefenseStorm. “Last year, we nearly doubled our 2018 bookings and are confident in our ability to continue this trend by consistently proving that our CyberSecurity and CyberCompliance solutions ensure financial institutions achieve and maintain cyber safety and soundness.”

Soukup was promoted to president from chief revenue officer in October 2019. In addition, DefenseStorm increased its full-time employee base by more than 15% last year, including four new additions to its leadership team:

• Grant Edwards, Chief Financial Officer;
• Paige Barry, Vice President, Customer Solutions;
• Robin Mace, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Operations; and
• Jeremiah Cruit, Director, Cyber Threat Center.

Also in October 2019, DefenseStorm held its inaugural customer conference in Alpharetta, Ga. Attendees participated in a full day of workshop sessions and networking. A post-event survey concluded that 100% of attendees felt the event met or exceeded their expectations, 80% will definitely attend this event in the future and 90% established new relationships that will be helpful to them and/or their financial institution. In addition to hearing from DefenseStorm executives, several customer executives also presented to their peers to share best practices for leveraging DefenseStorm as a key partner.

In addition, DefenseStorm is continuing its development and growth of the teams that sell, implement and support these offerings. Spurred by a plan to increase employee headcount by 41% in 2020, DefenseStorm moved both its Alpharetta, Ga. and Seattle offices into newer, larger, state-of-the-art spaces.

“We are moving into an exciting new era of rapid expansion and innovation,” said Soukup. “However, as DefenseStorm continues to grow and develop, our simple priority remains delivering on the promise of enhancing the cyber safety and soundness of our financial institution customers.”

About DefenseStorm

DefenseStorm provides cybersecurity and cybercompliance solutions specifically built for banking to achieve and maintain Cyber Safety & Soundness. The DefenseStorm GRID™ is the only co-managed, cloud-based and compliance-automated solution of its kind, operating as a technology system and as a service supported by experts in FI security and compliance. It watches everything on a bank or credit union’s network and matches it to defined policies for real time, complete and proactive cyber exposure readiness, keeping security teams smart and executives accountable. FFIEC CAT and ACET requirements are built-in and automated, as can be other frameworks and an FI’s own policies, to achieve Active Compliance™. A Threat Ready Active Compliance (TRAC) Team™ augments a bank or credit union’s internal team to protect business continuity and skills availability while also ensuring cost-effective coverage and management. DefenseStorm is a NAFCU Services Preferred Partner for cloud-based cybersecurity. www.DefenseStorm.com