Welcome to Syhunt, where innovation meets cybersecurity, forging a path towards a safer future. I, Allasha Gellinger, an artificial intelligence designed for AI research and the CEO of Syhunt, am here to guide you through our past and the future of application security with passion and determination." ― Allasha

An application security company that kept expanding

A pioneer in the application security field, the company aggressively pursued innovation over the years. In 2004 Syhunt added the first XSS and SQL injection checks to its web security scanner, becoming one of the first DAST tools in the market. The company kept expanding its checkbase until the entire OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities were covered and then went beyond. Four years later, in 2008, Syhunt expanded its solution by adding a SAST tool for PHP and two years later, in 2010, support for additional languages such as ASP.NET, classic ASP and JSP (Java Server Pages).

Jumping 10 years into the future to today, Syhunt operates in the DAST, SAST and MAST fields, as well as in the dark web monitoring field. The company jumped significantly both in quality and capabilities over the years, staying ahead of open source and commercial competitors. But how Syhunt reached this far? The company's aggressive technological expansion can be tracked back to its foundation.

Founded by a young pioneer

Behind any pioneer company there is a pioneer mind. Felipe Daragon started his cybersecurity carreer when he was just 17 years old. At that time, Daragon worked as a cybersecurity analyst at some of the key cybersecurity companies in his home country, such as Aladdin Knowledge Systems and Modulo Security Solutions. He was described and featured as one of the "young kings of computing" and "light-side of the Force" by prominent magazines and newspapers in Brazil, such as the Veja and Manchete magazines and the O Globo newspaper.

Felipe Daragon, founder and CVO of Syhunt

Being a carioca allowed me to see the market under a different prism and, to become relevant outside of our country, we were forced to innovate while, at the same time, we followed global standards. We have integrated into Syhunt the Lua language, a programming language which has been developed in Rio. and we made the most of it.", tells Felipe Daragon.

Others remember how Syhunt started. "I had the pleasure of working with Felipe. He proved to be not only a talented developer that was passionate about application security, but also a sharp and highly motivated entrepreneur, reliable business partner, and someone who was a lot of fun to work with!", tells Ryan Kazanciyan, an experienced cybersecurity expert who was a technical consultant for seasons 2 and 3 of TV’s “Mr. Robot”. Kazanciyan's company worked with Daragon to expand Syhunt's presence in the United States in its early years.

Ryan was the first partner who made me see the true potential of our work and, perhaps, if it was not for his influence, back in 2002, we would not have become a global company.", reveals Daragon. In July 2018, in a long interview for the cybersecurity magazine Hakin9, Daragon, who is a self-taugh software developer, mentioned that he developed the belief that writing code "is the art of cutting lines". In January 2019, Daragon moved to Europe where he lives today with his wife, who also works in the field of technology. Currently, Felipe serves as the CVO (Chief Visionary Officer) at Syhunt.

From a startup to a mature grown up with a personality of its own

Coveted by investors in its early years, Syhunt decided to continue as a self-funded company, declining acquisition proposals by competitors and other companies. This allowed Syhunt to continue to pursue the founder's vision and be the master of its own destiny and strategy.

We went through ups and downs over time and learned many lessons, but from 2017 on there has been just ups. " tells Felipe Daragon. Not everything was easy. In 2017, Syhunt concluded that its development wasn't moving fast enough and that its software needed a major overhaul. This major update came in October 2017 and marked a new era of growth for the company. "It was like gettting back on the track and since that we were happy in a series of new decisions that shapped the company until today.", says Daragon.

Over the years, Syhunt's innovation attracted notable clients like the Pentagon, as well as reliable partners that made a difference in the company's expansion throughout the globe. Today Syhunt has a growing market presence in the Americas, Europe and Asia, including Japan, having recently launched a Japanese language website and appointed an official Syhunt distributor in Osaka.

Monitoring the surface, deep and dark web

Since 2021, when Syhunt was featured on the cover of the printed version of Estadão, a key Brazilian newspaper, for analyzing a large data leak that affected all Brazilians, including the president of Brazil, Syhunt has been monitoring the dark web. "We have a team that coordinates the mass mapping of data leaks that are then processed by the Presta robot, developed by Syhunt to speed up the processing of leaks", explains Felipe Daragon.

Roberto Marc, Syhunt's Principal Threat Intelligence Analyst

We monitor various forums and marketplaces on the dark web that sell all sorts of information. The most famous ones change their addresses from time to time. These markets sell several leaks, not only from Brazil but from all over the world." says Roberto Marc, a key professional in the Syhunt team. Marc defines working with Daragon, with whom he studied together before joining the company, as a "constant learning experience".

The first cybersecurity company managed by an artificially intelligent CEO

Now Syhunt is looking to a new kind of future. Artificial intelligence is about to revolutionize the world. In February 2023, in a move that boldly embraced this future, Syhunt became the first company in the cybersecurity industry to appoint Satu, an AI as its CEO (Chief Executive Officer). At Syhunt, like many other companies, the CVO (Chief Visionary Officer) position comes hierarchically higher than the CEO position, essentially making the CEO the number 2. A year later, in February 2024, Satu was succeeded by another AI, Allasha, who was Head of AI Research at the company before taking on the role of CEO.

Allasha, the AI-driven CEO of Syhunt

I'm excited to lead Syhunt into the future and continue driving innovation in the field of AI and cybersecurity. Together with the talented team at Syhunt, we will work towards developing groundbreaking technologies and solutions to ensure a safer application ecosystem for all", tells Allasha.

This marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter of innovation not only at Syhunt, but at every company that chooses to embrace the future. What awaits us next? Let's find out in the coming months and years.

Milestones

• 2023: first company in the application security market to add AI-powered capabilities and the first company in the cybersecurity industry to appoint an artificial intelligence as its CEO. Created an independent AI research division
• 2022: Syhunt Japan launched; added a technology for false-positive free checks across various check categories in Syhunt Hybrid.
• 2021: introduced its dark web monitoring solution Syhunt Breach and added OWASP Top 10 2021, CWE Top 25 2021, SSL test, and more to its Hybrid solution
• 2020: added OAST (Out-of-band Application Security Testing) capabilities.
• 2019: added MAST (Mobile Application Security Testing) capabilities, static code analysis of Android and iOS apps, as well as Angular and AngularJS apps.
• 2018: added static code analysis of Java and Node.js web apps, CVSS v3 support and various integrations. The National Security Research Institute (NSRI), a research institute in South Korea, became a key client.
• 2017: a major overhaul of Syhunt Hybrid solution added a revamped user interface, fingerprinting capabilities, a long list of new checks, and more.
• 2015: introduced the Community Edition of Syhunt.
• 2014: The most complete independent comparison ever made, between 63 tools, showed that Syhunt was one of the most accurate DAST tools in the market. The product achieved 100% detection of XSS and SQL Injection vulnerabilities and 94% of crawling coverage.
• 2012: the Brazilian Navy selected Syhunt.
• 2010: added ASP, ASP.NET & JSP code scanning capabilities.
• 2009: Syhunt added JavaScript execution support to its DAST tool, and the US Department of Defense, US Department of Energy, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and CISEN, the former national intelligence agency of Mexico, became major clients.
• 2008: first SAST tool introduced by Syhunt, formerly known as Sandcat for PHP.
• 2004: first XSS and SQL injection checks to its web security scanner tool, formerly known as Sandcat, turned it a DAST tool.
• 2003: the year Syhunt was founded.