Independent certification verifies the operations behind the Ashburn firm’s Cyber Defense Suite, giving small businesses and insurers an outside reference point
ASHBURN, VA, UNITED STATES, September 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Shadowbear, a managed cybersecurity provider for businesses that have no security team of their own, has earned SPECTRA Level 1 certification and been issued a SPECTRA Certificate of Resilience, an independent standard that measures a security provider against what cyber insurers expect rather than against its own marketing.
SPECTRA launched its managed service provider resilience certification in June 2025 as a company-level standard, not an individual credential or a self-reported checklist. Its cyber risk advisory board is chaired by Dr. Michael Sulmeyer, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy. The program certifies providers at four levels: Approved, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. SPECTRA describes certified providers as delivering independently verified protection that is trusted by leading cyber insurers.
Certification at Level 1 required Shadowbear to submit documented evidence against technical, operational, and financial standards, not only its technology. That included written information security governance, a standard incident response playbook, contract governance covering how client agreements are issued and how deviations are reviewed and approved, staff qualifications, and the operating practices behind its 24/7 managed detection and response service.
“Every managed security provider tells you someone is watching your environment around the clock. Almost none of them can hand you an outside inspection that says so,” said Ian Garrett, founder of Shadowbear. “The customer gets a second professional opinion they did not have to go find themselves and they get a warranty backing their service.”
The certification also connects to the insurance side of the problem. Certified providers are listed among SPECTRA’s verified partners and can be referred by participating carriers and brokers, and SPECTRA backs certified services with the SpectraCare performance warranty, which refunds the service if it fails to hold up against events such as ransomware or business email compromise. For a business asked at every renewal to prove the controls behind its coverage, a certified provider is one fewer open question on the application.
“Buyers of managed security have very little way to check what they are told before they sign,” said Edouard von Herberstein, founder and CEO of SPECTRA. “Shadowbear put its governance, incident response, contracts, and service operations in front of an independent review built around what cyber insurers underwrite, and met the Level 1 standard. That is something its clients, and their insurers, can rely on.”
Shadowbear’s Cyber Defense Suite combines 24/7 managed detection and response, security monitoring, endpoint protection, employee phishing training, vulnerability scanning, and patching in a single per-user subscription. The company works mainly with businesses that handle sensitive information and have no dedicated security staff: defense subcontractors meeting NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC obligations, accounting and financial services firms, and other regulated small businesses in Northern Virginia and beyond. Shadowbear was ranked No. 35 on the Washington Business Journal’s 2026 list of Cybersecurity Companies in Greater Washington.
Businesses can request a free 30-minute Cyber Defense checkup at shadowbear.com/contact. The checkup reviews what a company already pays for, flags overlapping or unused security tools, and identifies the gaps an insurer, auditor, or customer questionnaire would surface.
About Shadowbear
Shadowbear is a veteran-owned managed cybersecurity provider based in Ashburn, Virginia. Its Cyber Defense Suite gives businesses 24/7 managed detection and response, security monitoring, employee phishing training, and compliance support for frameworks including CMMC, NIST SP 800-171, SOC 2, and ISO 27001, with no internal security team required. Shadowbear is SPECTRA Level 1 certified and a Vanta partner. Learn more at shadowbear.com.
About SPECTRA
SPECTRA is an independent cyber risk management firm that certifies managed service providers against technical, operational, and financial standards and backs certified services with the SpectraCare performance warranty. Learn more at spectracyber.com.
Media contact
Ian Garrett, Founder, Shadowbear
hello@shadowbear.com
Ian Garrett
Shadowbear
+1 571-680-6880
hello@shadowbear.com
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