What cyberratings.org does

CyberRatings.org is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization founded in November 2020 by Vikram Phatak (also the founder of NSS Labs) that provides independent cybersecurity product testing, ratings, and research. It evaluates products across five technology categories — Cloud Network Firewall (CNFW), Enterprise Firewall (EFW), Security Service Edge (SSE), Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) — using an adversarial testing methodology that mirrors real-world attacker tactics, including thousands of exploits, malware samples, and evasion techniques, without providing vendors advance notice of test specifics. Testing is executed by NSS Labs as the official testing partner, with Keysight Technologies supplying the underlying test platforms (Breaking Point, CyPerf, Network Emulator 3) and TeraPackets contributing packet replay and simulation expertise.

The organization publishes comparative reports, comparative security maps, product reports, methodologies, and mini tests through a resource library that had reached 140 resources as of late 2025. In November 2025, CyberRatings removed its paywall and made all test reports and research freely accessible to any visitor with free registration; previously, reports were gated behind paid access. Distribution is direct-to-website, supplemented by earned media coverage, podcasts/videos, webinars, a newsletter, and a membership community for industry professionals. Strategic content collaborations with SDxCentral's Decision Insights (SASE RFP framework) extend influence into enterprise IT buying workflows.

The business model is membership and partnership-driven rather than transactional: the company earns revenue (undisclosed) through its nonprofit membership community and likely through partner and sponsor relationships rather than per-report fees, especially after the November 2025 paywall removal. The customer base is horizontal — enterprise IT buyers, enterprise security teams, and cybersecurity vendors consuming independent validation — and its impact is measured by the credibility and adoption of its "Recommended" vs. "Caution" ratings rather than ARR. Notable 2025 results included Security Effectiveness ranges of 46.37%–99.59% across seven enterprise firewalls and 2.95%–100% across seven SSE products, with multiple major vendors (Cisco, Cloudflare, Skyhigh) receiving Caution ratings on SSE.

Name

cyberratings.org

Legal name

CyberRatings.org

Website

https://cyberratings.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CyberRatings.org is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit providing independent, adversarial cybersecurity product testing and ratings across five categories (CNFW, EFW, SSE, SD-WAN, ZTNA) for enterprise IT buyers and security vendors, with all reports free since November 2025.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cybersecurity Product Testing and Ratings

NAICS

Investigation and Security Services (5616)

SIC

Services-Testing Laboratories (8734)

akta.pro primary industry

Vulnerability Assessment, Security Audits & Compliance Testing (BPAKAHAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

Penetration Testing, Red Team & Ethical Hacking (EDAOAIAH)

Keywords

• Cybersecurity product testing
• Independent security ratings
• Enterprise firewall testing
• Security service edge testing
• Zero trust network access

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Membership/Subscription Access: CyberRatings.org operates as a nonprofit membership organization providing cybersecurity testing services. Reports were previously available through paid access but the paywall was removed in November 2025, making all reports free. Membership provides community access to industry professionals.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

CyberRatings.org is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization that provides independent, vendor-neutral cybersecurity product testing and ratings using an adversarial methodology that mirrors real-world attacker tactics. It evaluates enterprise security products across five technology categories: Enterprise Firewall, Cloud Network Firewall, Security Service Edge (SSE), SD-WAN, and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), publishing test reports, comparative reports, security maps, and methodologies. All reports are available free of charge following the November 2025 removal of the paywall.

Product overview

CyberRatings.org is a nonprofit organization (501(c)(6)) that provides independent, objective testing and ratings of cybersecurity products. The organization offers testing services across five key technology categories: Cloud Network Firewall, Enterprise Firewall, Security Service Edge (SSE), Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). All testing is conducted by NSS Labs as the official testing partner. Test reports, comparative reports, security maps, and methodologies are published and made freely accessible. The testing approach is adversarial—mirroring real-world attacker tactics—rather than certification-style testing. As of November 2025, all test reports are available at no cost following the removal of the paywall.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Enterprise Firewall Testing Independent testing of Enterprise Firewalls (formerly Next-Generation Firewalls/NGFW) using 3,326 exploits, 11,311 malware samples, 5,752 evasion techniques across 53 categories, 6,481 false-positive samples, and 55 performance tests. Evaluates TLS/SSL 1.2 and 1.3 encrypted traffic handling under real-world conditions. For enterprise security buyers and vendors.
• Security Service Edge (SSE) Testing Independent testing of Security Service Edge products covering 6,184 malware samples, 205 exploits of known vulnerabilities, 1,154 evasions spanning 37 categories, 1,514 false-positive samples, and TLS/SSL encrypted attacks representing ~97% of real-world HTTPS traffic. For enterprise security buyers evaluating SSE/SASE components.
• Cloud Network Firewall Testing Independent testing and evaluation of Cloud Network Firewall (CNFW) products for security effectiveness, throughput, and resilience in multi-cloud and hybrid architectures. Evaluates encrypted and unencrypted traffic inspection, preventing lateral movement and enforcing segmentation. For enterprise security buyers using cloud platforms.
• Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) Testing Independent testing of ZTNA products. Evaluates authentication, identity management, routing and policy enforcement, application and data access control, granular policies, least-privilege access, and modern TLS/SSL cipher suite support. For enterprise security buyers implementing zero trust architectures.
• Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) Testing Independent testing of SD-WAN products. Evaluates real-world performance under impairment conditions (packet loss, delay, reordering), policy enforcement for VPNs and direct internet breakout, and deployment ease through zero-touch provisioning. For enterprise IT buyers evaluating SD-WAN solutions.
• Comparative Reports and Security Maps Comparative analysis reports and visual comparative security maps across multiple security technology categories showing relative performance, security effectiveness, and value of tested products. Resource library contains 140 resources including comparative reports, methodologies, product reports, and mini tests. For enterprise IT buyers comparing competing vendor offerings.
• Mini Tests Focused, targeted testing results designed to answer specific security questions such as whether products are secure by default. For enterprise IT buyers and security evaluators seeking targeted validation.

Quantifiable outcome

• Security Effectiveness ranges from 46.37% to 99.59% across tested enterprise firewalls
• +3 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• NSS LabscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 July 2025NSS Labs is the Official Testing Partner of CyberRatings.org. Together they deliver independent, high-impact cybersecurity assessments. NSS Labs executes methodology-driven testing developed jointly with CyberRatings, ensuring consistency, repeatability, and objectivity. NSS Labs also contributes to educational initiatives through authoring comparative studies and providing expert commentary.
• SDxCentralsupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 May 2025Collaboration on a new SASE RFP framework. SDxCentral's Decision Insights platform provides a downloadable RFP template built specifically for SASE buyers, including vendor response spreadsheets and step-by-step guides to help teams run organized evaluation processes.
• Keysight TechnologiescoreTechnology or IntegrationKeysight provides advanced network testing platforms and threat simulation tools that power CyberRatings methodology-driven evaluations. Keysight tools include Breaking Point (high-performance network performance and simulated attack testing platform), CyPerf (cloud-native scalable test platform for distributed cloud environments), and Network Emulator 3 (high-performance network impairment emulation/simulation platform).
• TeraPacketssupportingTechnology or IntegrationTeraPackets brings specialized expertise in packet replay and application simulation to the testing ecosystem. Their solutions support the precision and repeatability required for CyberRatings comparative product assessments, enhancing the ability to measure efficacy under realistic conditions.
• Decision InsightssupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerDecision Insights is a new research platform designed for enterprise IT buying, with mission to help IT buyers make informed decisions faster. Created the Independent RFP for SASE Buyers in collaboration with CyberRatings.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations: MITRE Engenuity's ATT&CK Evaluations independently test enterprise security products (EDR, NDR, SIEM) against the ATT&CK framework using an adversarial methodology. It is a direct competitor for buyer mindshare on adversarial cybersecurity product validation.
• Tolly Group: Tolly Group is an independent testing and certification organization that evaluates enterprise networking, security, and cloud infrastructure products. It publishes comparative reports consumed by enterprise buyers, directly comparable to CyberRatings.org's research publication model.
• AV-TEST: AV-TEST is a long-established independent testing institute that evaluates endpoint security, antivirus, and other security products across effectiveness, performance, and usability. It is a comparable peer in independent cybersecurity product validation.
• SE Labs: SE Labs is an independent security product testing organization that runs enterprise, small business, and consumer product testing using real-world attack replication and total cost of protection models. Comparable in adversarial methodology and enterprise buyer focus to CyberRatings.org.
• AV-Comparatives: AV-Comparatives is an independent testing organization that conducts systematic comparative testing of endpoint security, antivirus, and other cybersecurity products using real-world and adversarial methodologies. It serves the same buyer/analyst community that consumes CyberRatings.org reports.
• ICSA Labs: ICSA Labs (an independent division of Verizon Business) provides independent testing and certification of security products including firewalls, anti-malware, and intrusion detection. It is a comparable peer in independent cybersecurity product testing and certification.
• NSS Labs: NSS Labs is the official testing partner of CyberRatings.org and historically conducted the same category of independent cybersecurity product testing (enterprise firewalls, SSE, SD-WAN, etc.). It executes the methodology-driven evaluations that produce CyberRatings.org reports, making it the closest functional peer despite the formal partner relationship.

Broad incumbents

• Gartner: Gartner is the dominant enterprise technology research and advisory firm whose Magic Quadrant and Peer Insights heavily influence enterprise security product purchasing decisions. CyberRatings.org competes for a slice of the same buyer-attention and vendor-validation budget.
• Forrester Research: Forrester is a major enterprise technology research and advisory firm publishing Wave reports on enterprise security categories (firewalls, ZTNA, SSE, SD-WAN). It is a broad incumbent that overlaps with CyberRatings.org's category coverage and buyer audience.

Others

• Keysight Technologies: Keysight Technologies is a strategic technology partner of CyberRatings.org providing Breaking Point, CyPerf, and Network Emulator 3 testing platforms. It is the upstream infrastructure provider enabling CyberRatings.org's adversarial testing methodology rather than a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cyberratings

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about cyberratings.org