Adaptive Shield vs KnowBe4
Side-by-side comparison of AI visibility scores, market position, and capabilities
SSPM platform acquired by CrowdStrike in 2023; deep security configuration management across 150+ SaaS applications. Tel Aviv Israel;
About
Adaptive Shield is a SaaS security posture management (SSPM) company founded in 2019 by Maor Bin and Jony Shlomoff in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company pioneered the SSPM category, which Gartner formally named as a distinct security market in 2021. Adaptive Shield's platform connects to an organization's SaaS applications via native APIs and continuously monitors security configurations, user permissions, and integration settings against security best practices and compliance frameworks. When a configuration drifts from the desired state — for example, multi-factor authentication being disabled for a user, or a permissive external sharing setting turned on — the platform alerts security teams and provides remediation guidance.\n\nAdaptive Shield raised $30 million before being acquired by CrowdStrike in 2023 for approximately $300 million. CrowdStrike integrated Adaptive Shield's SSPM technology into its Falcon platform as Falcon SaaS Security, giving CrowdStrike customers deep visibility into the security posture of their SaaS estates alongside CrowdStrike's existing endpoint, identity, and cloud security capabilities. The acquisition reflected CrowdStrike's strategy to expand from endpoint-centric security to comprehensive platform coverage.\n\nPrior to acquisition, Adaptive Shield supported security configuration checks across more than 150 SaaS applications including Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Zoom, Slack, GitHub, and Workday. Its check library covered thousands of individual configuration settings mapped to CIS Benchmarks, SOC 2, and other frameworks. The platform also provided an integration risk monitoring capability that inventoried third-party apps connected to core SaaS platforms, similar to the SSPM expansion toward full SaaS security management.
KnowBe4 is the world's largest security awareness training platform, delivering simulated phishing, compliance training, and human risk management to 65,000+ organizations.
About
KnowBe4 is a cybersecurity company headquartered in Tampa, Florida that operates the world's largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, serving over 65,000 organizations across 11 million users. Founded in 2010 by Stu Sjouwerman, the company was built on the thesis that the human element — employees who click phishing links, reuse passwords, and inadvertently install malware — represents the primary attack vector in the majority of successful breaches, and that continuous, measurable security awareness training combined with simulated phishing exercises is the most effective way to reduce this human risk. KnowBe4 went public in 2021 and was taken private by Vista Equity Partners in 2023 in a transaction valued at approximately $4.6 billion.
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