trustedsec.com

One-line Introduction

TrustedSec is a professional cybersecurity consulting firm headquartered in the United States, specializing in high-end security services such as penetration testing, red team exercises, security assessments, and incident response. It was founded by David Kennedy, a former security expert at the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Its core value proposition is “attacker-perspective” defense: helping enterprises and organizations discover vulnerabilities and improve their security posture by simulating real-world hacker attacks. In the overseas security community, TrustedSec is known for its technical depth and hands-on experience, with clients typically including financial institutions, government agencies, and large enterprises with strict security and compliance requirements. For Chinese users, this is a typical overseas high-end security service provider—not a product-based tool for individuals or small teams, but a security consulting firm that works on a project basis.

Business Overview

TrustedSec offers services across the full cybersecurity consulting lifecycle, including but not limited to penetration testing for Web, mobile, network devices, and cloud environments; red team exercises simulating advanced persistent threats; social engineering tests; security architecture design; incident response and forensic analysis; compliance audits such as PCI DSS and HIPAA; and customized security training. Founded in 2013, the company was created by David Kennedy, the developer of the well-known Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET), who has a strong reputation in both the hacker community and the defensive security field. TrustedSec’s client base includes Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, healthcare organizations, and financial institutions. Its service model is mainly project-based, with pricing determined by testing scope and complexity rather than subscription packages. In terms of industry positioning, TrustedSec is a mid-to-high-end consulting firm in the same tier as Mandiant and CrowdStrike’s consulting divisions, but with a stronger focus on attack simulation and practical security testing.

Who It’s Best For

TrustedSec is best suited for mid-to-large enterprises overseas or companies with international operations, especially financial institutions, e-commerce platforms, healthcare companies, and technology firms with mandatory security compliance requirements such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, or PCI DSS. Organizations that need red team testing simulating nation-state attackers, or independent third-party security audits, are also core target customers. For Chinese users, if your company has overseas branches or serves international customers and has sufficient budget, TrustedSec can be considered as a high-end security assessment option. It is not suitable for individual developers, small startups, or teams that only need a vulnerability scanning tool, because its services are expensive and typically require a relatively long project cycle. If ordinary domestic users simply want to test the security of their own websites, cheaper or free automated scanning tools are a better choice.

Key Features and Highlights

• Red Teaming: Simulates real-world APT attacks, including defense evasion, lateral movement, and data exfiltration, to test an organization’s overall security response capability.
• Social Engineering Testing: Tests employees with phishing emails, phone fraud, and similar scenarios to evaluate security awareness, combined with customized training.
• Customized Penetration Testing: Covers Web, mobile, cloud, IoT, and industrial control systems, with reports that include reproduction steps and remediation recommendations.
• Incident Response and Forensics: Provides 24/7 emergency response, supporting both remote and on-site forensics to help clients handle data breaches or ransomware incidents.
• Security Architecture Design: Helps enterprises build security systems from scratch, including network segmentation, identity authentication, log monitoring, and related solutions.
• Founder Reputation: David Kennedy is a well-known figure in the security industry, and many team members have military or national-level security backgrounds, giving the company strong technical credibility.

Pricing Analysis

TrustedSec does not publish pricing on its website and follows a typical quote-based model. Pricing is customized based on project complexity, testing scope, duration, and whether on-site support is required. Based on industry norms, U.S. security consulting firms at a similar level typically charge USD 20,000 to USD 50,000 for a single penetration test lasting around one week, while red team exercises lasting more than two weeks may cost as much as USD 100,000 to USD 300,000. Compared with automated vulnerability scanning tools such as Nessus or Qualys, which may cost several thousand dollars per year, TrustedSec is a high-end customized service and is expensive. There are no monthly or annual subscription plans, and no free trial. For Chinese users, if payment is in USD and cross-border payment is required, exchange rates and foreign exchange control costs also need to be considered. Overall value for money depends on the company’s security needs: if it is merely a box-ticking compliance exercise, the cost is too high; if there is a real need to defend against advanced threats, it can be worth the price.

How Chinese Users Can Use It

In terms of network accessibility, TrustedSec’s services are mainly delivered through online communication such as email and video meetings, as well as remote testing. Its official website and backend systems have average direct access speeds from mainland China, and a VPN or similar network access method may be needed for stable access. For payment, TrustedSec generally accepts international credit cards, bank transfers, or PayPal. It does not support Alipay or WeChat Pay, and cannot issue Chinese VAT invoices; it can only provide a U.S. invoice. This may create accounting obstacles for Chinese companies that need reimbursement. Domestic alternatives include penetration testing services from local security vendors such as Venustech, NSFOCUS, and Qi An Xin, which are relatively cheaper, support RMB payment, and can issue special VAT invoices. If a company operates entirely within China, domestic vendors should generally be considered first. If overseas customers must be served or top-tier red team capability is required, TrustedSec remains an option, but payment and financial compliance issues should be resolved in advance.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• ✅ Strong technical team, with the founder and core members having national-level security backgrounds such as NSA experience
• ✅ Comprehensive service coverage, from penetration testing to incident response
• ✅ High-quality reports with reproducible vulnerability details and remediation plans
• ✅ Strong reputation in the overseas security community, suitable for clients requiring authoritative third-party audits

Cons:

• ❌ Expensive, with no public pricing; difficult for small businesses to afford
• ❌ No refund guarantee and no free trial, making it hard to evaluate results before committing
• ❌ Not China-friendly: no RMB payment, no domestic Chinese invoices, and stable access may require a VPN or similar method
• ❌ Long project cycle; it often takes weeks or even months from initial communication to report delivery
• ❌ No automated tool or self-service platform; entirely dependent on human-delivered services

Comparison with Similar Services

• Mandiant（Google Cloud）: Also a high-end security consultancy, but Mandiant focuses more on incident response and threat intelligence, and is backed by Google Cloud, so pricing may be even higher. TrustedSec is more specialized in red team exercises and social engineering.
• CrowdStrike Falcon Consulting: CrowdStrike is known for endpoint detection and response (EDR). Its consulting division provides penetration testing and red team services, but with more emphasis on integration with its own products. TrustedSec is fully independent and does not tie clients to any security product.
• Domestic Vendors（such as Qi An Xin and NSFOCUS）: Prices are 50%-80% lower, with support for RMB payment and domestic invoices, and communication is more efficient. However, the depth of simulated attacks in red team exercises and international experience are usually not on par with TrustedSec, making them better suited for domestic compliance scenarios.

Final Recommendation

TrustedSec is best for the following scenarios: your company has overseas operations or serves international customers and needs an internationally recognized security audit report; or you need to simulate nation-state-level APT attacks to test your defense system, with a budget of several hundred thousand RMB or more. It is not suitable for domestic small and medium-sized businesses that only need regular vulnerability scanning or compliance checks, nor for individuals or teams with limited budgets and a need for fast delivery. It is recommended to contact sales through the official website first, obtain a quote, clarify the testing scope and deliverables, and then decide whether to proceed. Since there is no free trial, you can ask for previous case studies, with sensitive information removed, or technical white papers to assess whether its style matches your needs. If you ultimately choose TrustedSec, be sure to plan cross-border payment and financial reimbursement processes in advance.