Alacrinet Consulting Services: Redefining your Security Posture

“The cyber landscape of the 21st Century is a warzone. Customers want to brainstorm and problem-solve with a partner who can help mitigate potential threat actor attacks.  More so, they want a partner who will execute on milestones with a sense of urgency. This is where Alacrinet comes into the picture with an unchanged vision—to enthusiastically help our clients solve their cybersecurity needs,” begins Brian Bouchard, CEO and co-founder of Alacrinet Consulting Services.

As a leading cybersecurity and information technology consultant, Alacrinet’s goal is to deliver the right services and solutions that meet its clients’ IT security strategy. A full-service partner with a team of experts, Alacrinet presents the best IT security solutions in a way that’s easy to make decisions and implement.

The original vision of Alacrinet, as a hyper-client-focused cybersecurity consulting company, is stronger than ever nearly two decades after the formation of the business.  The name Alacrinet was conceived from the word alacrity meaning ‘cheerful readiness.’  It’s the ethos of the work culture and why Alacrinet is trusted by the Fortune 1000 to solve their cybersecurity pain points.

Since opening its doors, Alacrinet has been on a mission to elevate cyber security and help secure every aspect of a client’s business environment by combining customer-focused consulting with deep technical knowledge and certifications. “We started as a value-added reseller, and systems integrator. One of the main reasons for our success in our growth is that we’ve been adding a lot of offerings around cybersecurity to becomea full-service cybersecurity consulting firm.”

The Modern Security Approach

Alacrinet helps businesses plan, implement, and manage a complete security approach. The team offers advanced solutions that detect, protect, and remediate attacks. Find threats fast, interpret billions of events and identify and manage high-risk threats across cloud and on-premise environments. Their solutions proactively address security weaknesses and reduce risk. Alacrinet’s Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions put cognitive security to work for businesses and take control of the volume of data spread across their environment. It also protects financial institutions against fraud and data breaches through the web with IBM Trusteer.  Alacrinet enables companies to secure their entire endpoint landscape and protect the business network from outside threats by identifying vulnerabilities and proactively securing the environment.

From data security to application security, Alacrinet takes care of a client’s complete security requirements. When it comes to application security, the team ensures it with static and dynamic testing across the lifecycle. They will ensure to adapt to new development methodologies and increased application complexity while rapidly testing, detecting, and remediating security vulnerabilities onthe web, and in mobileand desktop applications. Alacrinet will also enable controlled access to systems across all devices, provide secure access to resources and manage identities. “We’re like a professional concierge that works on behalf of the customer to help them find and get fit into the right solution. We recently added a penetration testing division to our company, and penetration testing is quite ubiquitous, and a lot of companies just need it as a checkbox,” adds Bouchard.

Alacrinet’s managed security services are one of their kind with a highly dedicated team focused on knowing the latest threats, preventing vulnerabilities, and providing value. The company offers a range of service options to meet specific needs and address key elements of securing a client’s business environment. For some, that means full 24x7x365 monitoring, alerting, and response. For others, it’s taking care of administrative tasks and maintaining uptime. With an out-of-the-box Grey Box approach, Alacrinet provides clients a thorough analysis with automated scans to test the strength of their credentials and manual testing by an expert. Moreover, the company assembles great technology to create and integrate customized solutions. Cloud, Analytics, Mobile, Social, and Portal offer key solutions for IT infrastructure. “We’ve put together a strong team of highly knowledgeable folks in cybersecurity who have various career paths. With ongoing training and certifications our team has extensive knowledge in areas such as Development (front end, server-side, and mobile), Administration, Project Management, and UX & UI Design,” explains Bouchard.

Research, Technology and Innovation

What makes the company stand out is its innovation lab. The main purpose of the lab is to further develop offensive security research. “Our client base is comprised mostly of the Fortune 1000 and they face unique cybersecurity concerns. Within our portfolio, there is a subset of early adopters, about 15%, who are consistently searching for innovative solutions, even if unproven in the marketplace. These CIOs and CISOs are regularly asking about new technologies and research in cybersecurity. Listening to our clients put us on the path of investing in offensive cybersecurity research and seeking innovative startups in the space to partner with,” points Bouchard.

The realization that Alacrinet can be the conduit between established businesses seeking cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies and startups looking for companies interested in testing novel solutions, has created significant value in the marketplace. “Our researchers can vet those new technologies and present them to clients seeking next-generation solutions.  This is the magic behind our lab.”

In early 2021, Alacrinet Consulting Services acquired Chamber’s Key, a boutique offensive cybersecurity research firm based out of Seattle, Washington. Mike Pena, former CEO of Chamber’s Key and now Vice President of Pentesting Services at Alacrinet leads the newly established innovation lab. “The idea that Alacrinet can leverage its technical expertise and client portfolio to help cybersecurity startups go to market is a game-changer in the industry.  Our clients are seeking next-generation cybersecurity solutions and we are committed to finding those emerging technologies,” adds Pena.

Mike Pena’s experience in raising venture capital and working with private investment groups has proven vital to the success of the lab.  “Collaborating with researchers from the InfoSec community, and bringing their technologies to clients and investors has helped evangelize our lab’s value in the marketplace,” explains Pena.

The Perfect Security Team

At Alacrinet the work culture is set by their unique and experienced leadership. The company adopts a strategy that puts the client first, no micromanaging, and trusts employees while promoting a level of seamless collaboration.  It’s no wonder why Alacrinet has seen growth during the global pandemic when other organizations were forced into remote working.

“Most of our workforce has been working remotely for years. This was nothing new to us.  When the pandemic hit, our business continued operating normally and we witnessed significant revenue growth,” states Mr. Bouchard.  While some companies struggled in transitioning their workforce remotely and establishing an “online corporate culture” Alacrinet had been doing this for years.  “The pandemic forced us to be a more dynamic workforce and I believe our success had everything to do with our culture.”

This corporate culture is now part of the Alacrinet lab’s DNA.

“Employees who feel empowered to take ownership of their clients’ needs and who want to support their respective team members will figure out solutions.  Our goal is to provide world-class cybersecurity researchers and business-friendly consultants,” explains Mike Pena. “Over 68% of our clients are repeat customers and it’s because our team of security experts is business-friendly. We’re partners to our clients. We want our clients to feel comfortable with asking tough questions. Beyond the pentest, we’re teaching our clients and their blue teams, to identify potential attack paths the way a real-world threat actor would,” he concludes.