Cybersecurity startup Tenex launches with an AI-powered cloud MDR service – News

Cybersecurity startup Tenex.AI Inc. launched today with a managed detection and response service powered by artificial intelligence. 

The company is backed by an undisclosed amount of funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Shield Capital and a group of angel investors.

Tenex is led by co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Eric Foster. He was previously the president of a private equity-backed cybersecurity services company called Cyderes. Tenex’s board chair is Elias Manousos, a former Microsoft Corp. corporate vice president who oversaw the tech giant’s AI Copilot for Security and Threat Intelligence product.

Tenex’s flagship offering is a managed detection and response, or MDR, service for Google Cloud environments. The service allows enterprises to offload parts of their cybersecurity operations to the company and thereby ease the work of their internal information technology teams. 

“Tenex is tackling one of the most critical challenges in cybersecurity: the inefficiency of managing comprehensive security programs,” said Andreessen Horowitz general partner Zane Lackey.

Tenex offers its MDR service in three versions. With the base edition, enterprises can have the company set up a collection of cybersecurity systems and workflows in their Google Cloud environments. This cybersecurity stack also includes playbooks, scripts that automatically take actions such as deleting files when certain conditions are met. 

After Tenex sets up a cybersecurity stack, it helps the customer maintain it. The company also trains companies’ internal IT teams in using the technologies it deploys.

Customers who buy the two other, more expensive editions of Tenex’s MDR service can have a company take on a bigger role in their cybersecurity operations.

The top-end edition, Comprehensive MDR, includes round-the-clock cybersecurity monitoring. When Tenex spots malicious activity in a company’s network, its cybersecurity professionals take steps to remediate the breach. The company also creates post-incident reports to help customers find ways of improving their cybersecurity posture. 

The Comprehensive MDR plan includes other components as well. Tenex helps customers maintain their detections, automated scripts that each focus on identifying a specific set of malicious activity patterns. Some enterprises have upwards of hundreds of detections, which means that managing them in-house can be resource-intensive. Tenex also advises companies on emerging hacking campaigns that may target their infrastructure.

Tenex says that it uses AI models to automate some of the work involved in protecting customer networks. Reducing the number of manual steps involved in responding to a breach makes it possible to react faster. To support breach investigations, Tenex retains cybersecurity logs for 12 months.

The company’s MDR offering for Google Cloud environments became available earlier this month. It plans to roll out additional cybersecurity services later this year. 

Lackey told CRN that regulatory compliance, identity governance and vulnerability management are among the segments where Tenex could establish a presence. Identity governance is the task of managing how employees and applications access a company’s IT assets. Vulnerability management, in turn, is the process of scanning an IT environment for weak points such as insecure configuration settings.

Tenex is reportedly “open” to making acquisitions. However, the company plans to prioritize organic growth in the near term. 

Image: Unsplash