The 20 Coolest Security Operations, Risk And Threat Intelligence Companies Of 2026: The Security 100

From vendors that provide agentic SOC tools to those offering advanced threat feeds, here’s a look at 20 key companies in security operations, risk and threat intelligence.

While AI-powered automation is expected to increasingly impact the overall workforce in myriad ways, security teams are likely to be one segment where those impacts are likely to be the most positive. For Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts and threat intelligence specialists, the adoption of GenAI tools and AI agents is already proving to be a massive improvement—with AI having the ability to handle much of the threat triaging and investigation that once had to be done manually. That can free up teams to focus on more specialized work, potentially leading to a much stronger cyber defense posture for organizations that can use AI effectively for their security operations (SecOps).

Getting to the point of being able to effectively use AI and agentic capabilities for SecOps, risk and threat intelligence will remain a challenge, however—and a wide array of vendors are vying to reach security teams and MSSPs in order to lead the way in the “agentic SOC” in 2026.

For the 2026 Security 100, CRN is recognizing 20 security operations, risk and threat intelligence vendors that have stood out over the past year through delivering a combination of technical advancements and expanded opportunities for solution and service provider partners.

What follows are the 20 security operations, risk and threat intelligence companies that made the Security 100 list for 2026.

7AI

Lior Div

Co-Founder, CEO

Agentic-powered security operations startup 7AI delivers a platform that deploys autonomous AI agents to handle critical “non-human” SecOps tasks such as alert triage, investigations and incident response, according to the company. The agents leverage dynamic reasoning capabilities in order to adapt to various scenarios and eliminate false positives—ultimately enabling faster responses within security operations.

Arctic Wolf

Nick Schneider

President, CEO

Security operations platform provider Arctic Wolf launched its Alpha AI portfolio of technologies, leveraging a massive volume and diversity of datasets, the company said. Alpha AI leverages data from Arctic Wolf’s broad customer base—as well as the industry’s “first and longest-running” predictive AI model—resulting in significantly reduced false positives and mean-time-to-resolution for threats, according to Arctic Wolf.

Axonius

Dean Sysman

Co-Founder, CEO

Axonius unveiled the debut of its new Exposures offering, targeted at unifying security findings with asset intelligence as well as business context. Key capabilities in Exposures include risk analysis and automation as well as remediation, ultimately eliminating “risk silos” and helping teams to better prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities, Axonius said.

Cavelo

James Mignacca

President, CEO

Cavelo offers an attack surface management platform with a range of capabilities including data discovery and classification, asset discovery, identity access management and vulnerability management. In particular, the startup excels at providing attack surface management capabilities for hybrid environments, according to solution providers. Cavelo has been notably doubling down on growing its MSP partner ranks over the past year, the company said.

Cribl

Clint Sharp

Co-Founder, CEO

Cribl, which provides a vendor-agnostic data engine for analyzing and routing security data, recently debuted new capabilities for detection and protection of sensitive data with the launch of Cribl Guard. The offering delivers intelligent detection that is context-based, as well as providing dynamic rule recommendations and proactive remediation, according to the company.

Cynomi

David Primor

Co-Founder, CEO

Cynomi aims to enable MSPs and MSSPs to deliver vCISO services at a broader scale and without a need for increased staff. The vendor’s AI-powered, multitenant platform automates the core functions of a vCISO, enabling partners to serve more clients effectively, according to the company.

Dataminr

Ted Bailey

Founder, CEO

Recent moves by Dataminr included the acquisition of ThreatConnect in a move aimed at boosting its capabilities around AI-powered threat intelligence. ThreatConnect will bring its cyber threat intelligence and risk prioritization offering to Dataminr’s AI platform, which focuses on providing rapid threat intel and risk detection, according to Dataminr.

Exabeam

Pete Harteveld

CEO

Exabeam stands out in the SecOps tools sector for AI advancements, including being an early adopter of agentic capabilities for SIEM, as well as for its deployment options spanning cloud and on-premises environments, according to the company. Other differentiators include its standalone UEBA (user and entity behavior analytics) offering—focused on combating pressing risks such as insider threats—which can work with SIEM platforms from other vendors in a complementary fashion.

Galactic Advisors

Bruce McCully

CEO, Chief Security Officer

A new approach to penetration testing recently patented by Galactic Advisors is achieving early customer wins for MSP partners, according to the company. The company’s “user-activated” penetration testing system stands out from existing pentesting approaches by not needing privileged credentials to be utilized.

Google Cloud

Thomas Kurian

CEO

Google Cloud debuted its Google Unified Security offering, which combines security operations and cloud security with threat intelligence and the company’s Chrome Enterprise browser. The platform, which also leverages expertise from the company’s Mandiant unit, ultimately offers enhanced detection and remediation of threats, the company said.

IBM Security

Arvind Krishna

Chairman, President, CEO

As a major developer of quantum computers, IBM has brought a major focus on enabling the shift to post-quantum cryptography through its security division. Recent expansion moves in the area have included the launch of IBM’s Guardium Cryptography Manager, which delivers visibility and centralized life-cycle management for post-quantum cryptography.

KnowBe4

Stu Sjouwerman

Founder, CEO

Security awareness platform KnowBe4 recently launched a new training module centered on deepfake threats. The new module focuses on educating users about deepfake videoconferencing and calls, as well as other fraudulent social engineering scams leveraging AI-generated video.

Qualys

Sumedh Thakar

President, CEO

Qualys doubled down on its Risk Operations Center platform, Enterprise TruRisk Management, which can combine all of an organization’s assets and data before then applying threat intelligence, business context and compensating controls. That approach provides far greater quantification of risk as well as a way to better prioritize security efforts, the company said.

Rapid7

Corey Thomas

CEO

Rapid7 debuted its Managed Detection and Response for Enterprise offering, a fully managed and customizable MDR service combining the vendor’s “deep” visibility across devices and environments with coverage that is tailored to each environment, the company said. Other key capabilities include custom integration of event sources and customized detections as well as tailored threat monitoring, Rapid7 said.

Securonix

Kash Shaikh

President, CEO

Securonix recently launched its Data Pipeline Manager offering, featuring a flexible consumption model to help reduce cost constraints while also enabling expanded threat visibility and analytical coverage. The offering aims to eliminate the cost-related concerns around data ingestion and diminished threat visibility that have often plagued the SIEM market, according to the company.

ServiceNow

Bill McDermott

President, CEO

ServiceNow has bolstered its security portfolio with a pair of major acquisition deals, including the planned acquisition of cyber exposure management vendor Armis for $7.75 billion. The company also recently announced an agreement to acquire identity security startup Veza, reportedly for around $1 billion.

Tenable

Stephen Vintz, Mark Thurmond

Co-CEOs

Tenable announced that it would add new capabilities for detecting and preventing GenAI risks with the debut of the Tenable AI Exposure offering. The expansion to the Tenable One platform includes “comprehensive” AI discovery as well as management and prioritization of AI exposures, according to the company.

Torq

Ofer Smadari

Co-Founder, CEO

Torq, a hyperautomation startup that has invested heavily in partner enablement over the past year, has seen massive momentum around its Torq AI Agents offering, the company said. Torq AI Agents provides autonomous analysis and assessment of security incidents, enabling the building and deployment of advanced agents with a minimal amount of effort, according to the vendor.

VulnCheck

Anthony Bettini

Founder, CEO

VulnCheck provides exploit intelligence to security teams through delivering machine-readable threat data, automatically enabling improved defense against threats. VulnCheck recently launched its first formal partner program to drive the next phase of growth for its offering.

ZeroFox

David Muse

CEO

ZeroFox is expanding its use of custom AI models as a way to rapidly identify and disrupt major threats, including domain-spoofing and phishing, as well as applying SLMs (small language models) to provide deeper understanding for security teams, according to the company. The moves ultimately aim to enable faster surfacing of threats, ZeroFox said.