Abacus Joins IT Europa’s Study of the Fastest-Growing Cyber Firms

IT Europa has published High Growth 20: Cybersecurity Specialists, its analysis of the fastest-growing CREST-accredited cybersecurity providers in the UK and Ireland. Abacus was among the firms interviewed, and Abacus Director of Cybersecurity, Travis DeForge, contributed to the report’s findings on regulation, AI, and how providers are structuring their services.

On regulation, Travis noted that DORA now mandates penetration testing for financial firms operating in the EU, and that for many fund managers, operational due diligence from investors already sets a higher bar than most regulators do.

On AI, he described demand moving in two directions. Clients want to know how Abacus uses AI to sharpen its own testing, and they want the AI tools they deploy or build tested with the same rigor as the rest of their environment. Abacus launched AI-enabled pentesting with Horizon3.ai about a year ago, and 45 to 50 clients have moved onto it with none returning to the manual process. Travis expects continuous testing to replace the annual engagement within five years. “We will see the end of fully manual, point-in-time penetration testing,” he said.

The report also cites Abacus’ acquisition of Gotham Security, which put penetration testing and compliance consulting under the same roof as its global 24×7 SOC, as an early example of the connected service model it finds among the fastest-growing providers.

Read the full report on IT Europa.