News and Press

DefenseStorm believes that technology can make a difference in helping financial institutions be more secure. Our vision is to create a community where we can invite banking and IT security professionals to join like-minded peers in a common goal of stopping cybercriminals.

DefenseStorm is headquartered in Seattle, WA which is home to world-class engineering, sales and marketing talent. We also have Sales and Customer Success satellite offices in Atlanta, San Francisco and Orlando.

DefenseStorm believes in the power of cloud, not just for our customers, but for ourselves. Our entire suite of services is built on top of cloud infrastructure and state-of-the-art Big Data and Search technologies. Being built from ground-up in the cloud allows DefenseStorm to have durable, redundant and fast services that can scale in real-time in a cost-effective manner. Speedy services ensure that remediation and analysis happens quickly. Durable and redundant services ensure that no data gets lost.

Because DefenseStorm is a true cloud-based service, FIs will benefit from DefenseStorm’s ability to adapt to future emerging threats. We will also grow as demands of banks grow through acquisitions or organic growth.

Edgardo Nazario (Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer) and Jeff Lunsford (Chairman) were contemplating their next venture and came up with the idea to build a new kind of cybersecurity solution that would solve three emerging challenges for IT security teams:

• Too many point systems to monitor
• A lack of real-time reporting that proves policy compliance to C-Suite and Board of Directors
• Trouble finding and hiring IT security experts

The duo researched this idea to gauge market demand and efficacy of the solution, and were surprised by the size of the solution gap they saw across all industries; the cybersecurity industry is crowded, but there wasn’t a cloud-based cybersecurity management solution that included network monitoring, incident response workflow, policy governance, and real-time analytics into a single solution. They chose to focus on the banking vertical, because while banks have similar needs to other corporations, they have unique security needs that present a compelling requisite for a solution that keeps our country’s most sensitive financial data secure from foreign attackers and organized criminals.

Community banks have a long tradition of being visible in the community and enjoying personal relationships with their customers. Community bankers know the names and faces of their customers, because they see them every day. As such, bankers have extra incentive to protect their business, because they know that if a breach occurs, their customers will bring it up when they run into each other at the grocery store or around town.

Armed with their research, Nazario and Lunsford, reached out to a couple of banks to test their idea. They were astounded by the reaction they received.

They spoke to Thomas Hill, CISO of Live Oak Bank, to vet the technical details and Jim Brockett, CIO, of WA Trust Bank, to vet DefenseStorm’s approach to policy and compliance reporting. Both banks were extremely interested in the solution, so they signed 3-year contracts to join DefenseStorm’s Founder Bank Program, which provides special access to the DefenseStorm product team and the opportunity to give feedback on new solution features.

• September 2014: Alpha solution demonstration for Founder banks
• September 2014: Alpha solution demonstration for Founder banks
• December 2014 production solution launched, DefenseStorm acquires 3rd banking customer, Citizen National Bank of Texas
• March 2015: DefenseStorm announced angel funding round of $1.7M, which was earmarked to hire sales and marketing teams
• April 2015: DefenseStorm came out of Stealth Mode to begin sales and marketing efforts
• October 2015: DefenseStorm adds additional founding customers and announces additional angel funding of $3.1M
• June 2016 DefenseStorm (formerly Praesidio Inc.) rebrand is complete
• July 2016: DefenseStorm welcomes new CEO, Sean Feeney and secures $6M in funding