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Cyber Security Firms

Best Cyber Security Firms in Tampa

Tampa is a market anchored by MacDill Air Force Base and the defense contractors around it, plus healthcare, insurance and a large base of small businesses. The firms on this list were checked the same way as every list on the site. Rank one is the best overall, ranks two to four are the best for small business, managed detection and compliance work, and the rest cleared the same checks.

9 firms ranked24 evaluatedChecked
  1. 01Best overall
  2. 02Best for small business
  3. 03Best for managed detection
  4. 04Best for compliance
  5. 05+The rest of the shortlist, ranked on the same checks
Rank 01
ReliaQuest logo

ReliaQuest

Best overall

Security operations delivered on its own GreyMatter platform, from a downtown Tampa headquarters.

Checked
Why they are on this list
  • Headquartered at 1001 Water Street in downtown Tampa and runs one of its six operations centers in the city, alongside Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Dublin, London and Pune
  • Over 1,200 team members and more than 1,000 customer organizations, which makes it by some distance the largest security company headquartered in the metro
  • Named a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cyberthreat Intelligence Technologies
  • GreyMatter is sold as the same console its own analysts work in, so a customer's team and ReliaQuest's team look at one view of an alert rather than trading tickets across two systems
  • Founder Brian Murphy still runs the company and chairs Embarc Collective, the Tampa startup hub, so the leadership is accountable locally as well as commercially
Size
Over 500 staff
Sectors
Enterprise
Threat detection and responseSecurity operations platformAttack surface and exposure managementDark web and digital risk protection$$$Tampa, FL
Visit website, ReliaQuest(800) 925-2159
Rank 02
Jün Cyber logo

Jün Cyber

Best for small business

A veteran-led compliance and managed security firm in St. Petersburg working with small and mid-sized regulated businesses.

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Why they are on this list
  • States on its own about page that the firm was created for underserved small and mid-sized businesses that need to build a cyber strategy and prepare for an audit, and it keeps a small business page rather than only enterprise ones
  • Veteran owned and veteran led, with a team the company describes as military veterans who served on the ground, in the air and at sea
  • Publishes free CMMC tools, including a supplier performance risk system score calculator and a CMMC question assistant, which lets a buyer test the depth of the practice before paying for anything
  • Builds secure enclaves in Microsoft GCC High, AWS GovCloud and Google Assured Workloads, which is the practical route for a small defense subcontractor that has to hold controlled unclassified information
  • Sells CMMC sustainment as a separate service from CMMC readiness, so the engagement covers holding the score after the assessment rather than ending at the paperwork
CMMC readiness and sustainmentSOC 2 and ISO 27001 readinessManaged security servicesPenetration testingSt. Petersburg, FL
Visit website, Jün Cyber
Rank 03
Digital Hands logo

Digital Hands

Best for managed detection

A Tampa managed security services provider running a 24/7 security operations center and network operations center.

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Why they are on this list
  • Publishes four attestations covering its own operation, ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, HITRUST and PCI DSS 4.0.1, which is more than most firms of this size put on a page a buyer can read
  • Runs a 24/7 security operations center and a network operations center, and states that its analysts triage, contain and resolve rather than escalating alerts back to the customer
  • Two decades running a managed security practice from Tampa, with the head office on West Boy Scout Boulevard rather than a sales address
  • Sells managed detection and response as co-managed and technology agnostic, so a buyer keeps the SIEM, EDR, firewall and identity platforms already paid for instead of replacing them
  • Named a Top MSSP by MSSP Alert and a TSIA Global Star Award winner
Attestations
ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, HITRUST
Managed detection and responseManaged SIEMManaged EDR and identity defenseFirewall and infrastructure management$$Tampa, FL
Visit website, Digital Hands(855) 511-5114
Rank 04
A-LIGN logo

A-LIGN

Best for compliance

A Tampa headquartered audit firm accredited to assess against most of the frameworks US buyers ask about.

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Why they are on this list
  • Authorized as a CMMC Third Party Assessment Organization, with more than 100 CMMC assessments completed according to its own site, which is the credential that decides who can actually certify a defense contractor
  • Ranks itself as the number three FedRAMP third party assessment organization on the marketplace, having served more than 250 federal clients
  • Describes itself as the number one issuer of SOC 2 reports and keeps more than 200 auditors dedicated to SOC work alone
  • Reports more than 36,000 audits completed for over 6,400 client organizations across more than 45 standards, so a company chasing several frameworks at once can run them through one firm
  • Founded in 2009 in Tampa and runs a penetration testing and red team practice alongside the audit business, so a finding can be tested rather than only written up
Founded
2009
Attestations
FedRAMP 3PAO, CMMC C3PAO, HITRUST assessor
SOC 1 and SOC 2 auditsISO certificationsFedRAMP and StateRAMP assessmentsCMMC assessmentsTampa, FL
Visit website, A-LIGN
Rank 05

Abacode Cybersecurity & Compliance

A Tampa managed cybersecurity and compliance provider with its security operations center in the same building as its head office.

Checked
  • Head office and security operations center share one address on SkyCenter Drive in Tampa, so the round-the-clock monitoring is staffed in the metro rather than handed to a third party
  • Holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications on its own operation and is a Cyber AB Registered Provider Organization for CMMC
  • Sells monitoring and compliance as one continuous program rather than as a project followed by a separate subscription, which is what a defense subcontractor holding controlled unclassified information usually needs
  • States that the delivery team is entirely US based and employed rather than contracted, which matters for work that touches controlled unclassified information
  • Now owned by Thrive, which placed the Tampa operations center inside a larger managed services group without moving it
Attestations
SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, CMMC RPO
Sectors
Defense industrial base, Healthcare, Private equity, Mid-market
Managed detection and response24/7 managed SOC monitoringCMMC complianceSOC 2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA compliance$$Tampa, FL
Visit website, Abacode Cybersecurity & Compliance(866) 205-2810
Rank 06

Ridge IT Cyber

A managed security provider that moved its headquarters to Tampa and works mainly with defense, finance and hospitality clients.

Checked
  • Named to the Inc. 5000 for a fourth consecutive year in 2026, at number 1,901 nationally on three year revenue growth of 181 percent, and was the highest ranked managed security provider on the list in both 2023 and 2024
  • The Westshore office is described as the hub delivering 24/7 security operations for Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, and the company says it has grown there from three people to nearly forty in two years
  • A Registered Provider Organization for CMMC, which is the credential the firm advising a defense contractor is meant to hold
  • Built without venture capital or private equity, and the founders are named, which makes the growth figures easier to read than a funded competitor's
  • Keeps offices in Tampa, Miami, Atlanta and the Washington DC metro, so a company with sites in more than one of those is covered by people in each
Founded
2014
Attestations
CMMC RPO
Sectors
Financial services, Hospitality, Healthcare, Manufacturing
Managed endpoint securityCMMC complianceZero trust architectureManaged IT$$Tampa, FL
Visit website, Ridge IT Cyber(844) 743-4348
Also on the shortlist
Rank 07

NaviSec

A Tampa firm selling offensive testing, defensive engineering and a security operations center as three separate services.

Website, NaviSec
Rank 08

Northern Technologies Group

A Tampa network engineering and cyber security company working across federal and commercial clients.

Website, Northern Technologies Group
Rank 09

ConnectOn

A Tampa managed services provider running its own security and network operations centers for business clients.

Website, ConnectOn

Cyber Security Firms may earn a referral fee if you engage a firm through a link on this site. How that works.

How to Choose a Cyber Security Firm in Tampa

Tampa Bay has two buyers who want opposite things. One is a subcontractor near MacDill Air Force Base, which hosts both United States Central Command and United States Special Operations Command, that has been handed a contract clause and needs a NIST 800-171 score it can defend. The other is a fifty-person company in Westshore or St. Petersburg with nobody watching its email and endpoints, which would not know what to do after a data breach if one landed tomorrow. A firm that is excellent for the first is often the wrong call for the second.

So decide which one you are before you take a meeting. If a contract clause is driving the work, ask whether the firm is a Registered Provider Organization, and ask separately who will perform the assessment, because the firm that prepares you cannot be the firm that certifies you. If nothing is being watched, the question is where the operations center is staffed, during which hours, and what an analyst is allowed to do at two in the morning without calling you first.

Then ask every firm on your shortlist the same two things. Which attestations do you hold on your own systems, and where can I check them. And what does this engagement cost, in a range, today. The answers sort a Tampa shortlist faster than any list of common cyber security threats will.

What the Ranks Mean

Rank one is the best firm overall on the checks in the editorial policy. Ranks two to four are the best firm for one kind of buyer each: a small business, an organization buying managed detection, and an organization facing compliance work. The rest of the shortlist cleared the same checks and is ordered on them. A low rank on this list is not a warning; a firm that failed a check is not on it.

Questions about hiring a cyber security firm

What do cyber security firms in Tampa charge?

Monitoring is sold per user or per endpoint each month, and the firms here that discuss the model at all price on users rather than devices. Penetration tests are scoped projects, quoted once someone has counted your systems. Incident response is billed hourly or against a retainer. Very few Tampa firms publish numbers, so ask for a written range before you sit through a discovery call.

Do I need a cyber security firm based in Tampa Bay?

For monitoring, no. An operations center in Salt Lake City watches your endpoints as well as one on Independence Parkway does. For incident response, compliance work and anything that involves your premises, your staff or a deposition, local matters. A firm that can put two people in your Westshore office the same afternoon is worth more than one that cannot.

What does Florida law require after a data breach?

The Florida Information Protection Act gives you 30 days from determining that a breach occurred to notify the individuals affected. If 500 or more Florida residents are involved, you also notify the Department of Legal Affairs within 30 days, with a single 15 day extension available for good cause put in writing. A breach touching more than 1,000 people at once also triggers notice to the national consumer reporting agencies.

Which Tampa industries drive the demand for security work?

Defense first. MacDill Air Force Base hosts both United States Central Command and United States Special Operations Command, and the subcontractors around them buy NIST 800-171 scoring and CMMC readiness. Healthcare is second, with the hospital systems and their suppliers buying HIPAA risk assessments. Finance, insurance and software firms in the Westshore corridor buy SOC 2 because their own customers ask for it.

What should I ask a Tampa firm before hiring it?

Four questions. Where is your operations center staffed, and during which hours. Which attestations do you hold on your own systems, and where can I verify them. Who answers at three in the morning, and what are they allowed to do without waking me. And what does the work I have just described cost, in a range, before a discovery call.

How is this list put together?

Every firm is checked on what it actually does, the attestations that can be verified, its track record, a response test where we contact it as a prospective client, and how clear it is about scope and price. Rank one is the best firm overall. Ranks two to four are the best for small business, managed detection and compliance. The editorial policy sets out each check and what fails it.

Ranked lists in other cities

Each metro is researched on its own. A firm that leads nationally does not automatically appear on a city list, and most city leaders are not national names.

The national ranking