Surefire Cyber: Celebrating a Year of Impact and Innovation in Incident Response

On behalf of our team, I’d like to congratulate Billy Gouveia and Surefire Cyber on their remarkable growth trajectory over the past year – since their inception and incubation with Forgepoint. 

When we first started working with Billy, it was clear that his drive to innovate in the incident response (IR) arena could catalyze a best-in-class company. As Surefire Cyber moved from idea to reality, we saw the opportunity to help companies become more resilient and led Surefire Cyber’s Series A funding round. Today, Surefire Cyber is a respected and fast-growing leader in cyber incident preparation, response, and recovery.

Here’s a snapshot of how Surefire Cyber has built its well-earned reputation and why the company is achieving such impressive results. 

Building the Best IR Team to Serve Partners and Clients

The team is the nucleus of a company, and critical to its success. Billy’s track record in the industry and vision has been key in building an experienced, high-quality team at Surefire Cyber: 

• Atlantic Data Forensics’ team – including Founder Brian Dykstra, now Director of Cyber Advisory Services at Surefire Cyber joined in 2022, bringing specialized expertise in digital forensics, IR, and investigations.
  

  Atlantic Data Forensics is pleased to take our years helping large enterprises and law firms with high-quality incident response and expert digital forensics into the cyber insurance ecosystem. I’m very excited about combining our capabilities and experience with Surefire Cyber’s strong connections throughout the cyber insurance ecosystem. – Brian Dykstra

• Joe Tarraf, Chief Delivery Officer (former Managing Director, S-RM) is a cybersecurity and IR leader with expertise that drives Surefire Cyber’s client engagement while delivering first-class service. 

• Marc Bleicher, CTO (former Managing Director, Arete Advisors) is an IR and cyber forensics expert whose technical skillset elevates Surefire’s technical platform and IR capabilities to the highest levels. 

• Jerry Bessette, COO (former SVP Commercial Cyber Incident Response, Readiness, and Resiliency at Booz Allen Hamilton and distinguished special agent/executive leader at the FBI) provides deep incident response expertise to accelerate Surefire Cyber’s execution on strategy. 
  

  Surefire Cyber has quickly positioned itself to bring change to the market by streamlining the incident response process and delivering high quality results. – Jerry Bessette

• Kimberly Baldoni, CMO (former Head of Marketing, Beazley) is a proven leader and executive in the insurance carrier space whose insight drives the company’s marketing and communications strategy. 

• Jenna Zucali, CPO (former Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Tetra Defense, acquired Arctic Wolf Networks) has an extensive track record in recruitment and training and cultivates the company culture of excellence. 
  

  I believe that investing in people is critical to achieving business goals and driving sustainable growth. I look forward to working with everyone at Surefire Cyber to continue to build a team of exceptional performers and to create a culture where everyone can thrive and contribute to our collective success. – Jenna Zucali

• Jeanne Angelo-Pardo, CFO (former CFO, Mocana Corporation) brings years of experience as a senior executive managing company finances to oversee Surefire Cyber’s financial success. 

Augmenting the Team with an Experienced Board 

Board leadership plays a key role in any company’s journey. Surefire Cyber has attracted distinguished executives with extensive industry expertise to guide the company’s strategy and growth, including Cyndi Gula, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Gula Tech Adventures and Co-Founder of Tenable.  Cyndi has provided crucial strategic guidance to help Surefire Cyber achieve quality growth and scalable technical solutions.  

I am looking forward to working alongside Billy and the rest of the board on Surefire Cyber’s strategy and execution and contributing to the firm’s growth and success in helping their clients prepare, respond, and recover from cyber incidents. – Cyndi Gula

Bringing a Trusted Approach with Tech-enabled Case Management 

Surefire Cyber’s seasoned team has developed a rigorous case management approach which is unparalleled in the industry. The team’s experience is at the heart of the company’s exceptional delivery and partner engagement, connecting and guiding insurance carriers, law firms, brokers, and organizations to improve IR outcomes for impacted organizations while fortifying their cyber resilience. 

Surefire Cyber now operates across over a dozen panel relationships among leading carriers and law firms. Clients and partner organizations who work with Surefire Cyber know they can reply on the team at a time where trust is at a premium – the moments following a cyber event. This is evident in Surefire Cyber’s strong client testimonials, 100% customer satisfaction score, and best in class Net Promoter Score (NPS). 

Surefire Cyber has also strengthened its ability to drive enhanced value for partner carriers and law firms by leveraging its forensic tooling, response data, and cyber intelligence and delivering swifter and stronger client outcomes. 

Earning Well-Deserved Industry Recognition: Awards and Collaborations

Surefire Cyber’s growth and leadership has garnered a Advisen Zywave Cyber Risk Awards Cyber Newcomer of the Year nomination, membership in the 2023 Mission Link.Next cohort, and two positions in the NetDiligence Ransomware Advisory Group (Billy Gouveia and Jerry Bessette). 

Surefire also continues to work closely with complementary partner organizations to help companies emerge stronger following a cyber incident. Most recently, Surefire Cyber and SolCyber partnered to facilitate seamless IR capabilities so companies can quickly fortify their security posture after an incident. 

Celebrating Surefire’s Bright Future and the Road Ahead

Surefire Cyber’s growing number of maturing insurance carrier and law firm relationships and top-tier delivery will propel the company to make an even greater impact in the future. With heightened ransomware activity – ransomware incidents in 2023 are on track to return to 2021 levels after a decrease in 2022 – recovery and IR capabilities are more important than ever for organizations. An uptick in ransomware caseloads also means added work for cyber insurance carriers and law firms. Surefire Cyber is uniquely positioned to meet the increased burden for both partners and affected organizations. 

Forgepoint Capital is excited to continue partnering with Surefire Cyber to help organizations plan for, respond to, and emerge stronger from cyber incidents. We look forward to Surefire Cyber’s future as they set new standards for incident response and recovery.