# Black Kite

> Black Kite is a Boston-based cybersecurity company that rates and monitors the cyber risk posed by an organization's third-party vendors and supply chain. Built from a hacker's perspective, its platform combines non-intrusive external assessments, ransomware-likelihood scoring, standards-based compliance mapping, and Open FAIR financial-impact modeling so risk teams can see, quantify, and act on the exposure hiding inside their vendor ecosystem.

- **Founded:** 2016
- **Headquarters:** Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- **Founders:** Candan Bolukbas (Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer), Mohamoud Jibrell (Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~200 employees
- **Products:** Black Kite Platform, Ransomware Susceptibility Index (RSI), Cyber Rating (Technical Rating), Open FAIR Financial Impact, Compliance Correlation
- **Notable:** Pioneered security ratings designed from a hacker's perspective, beginning as NormShield in 2016., Introduced the Ransomware Susceptibility Index (RSI), an early predictive ransomware-likelihood score., Raised a $22M Series B led by Volition Capital in October 2021.

## Products & services

- **Black Kite Platform** — A standards-based third-party cyber risk management platform providing external cyber assessments, continuous monitoring, and risk response across a company's entire vendor ecosystem.
- **Ransomware Susceptibility Index (RSI)** — A predictive score from 0.0 to 1.0 estimating the likelihood a company lands on a ransomware group's radar, blending technical indicators (misconfigurations, exposed ports, leaked credentials, botnet activity) with intrinsic factors like industry, geography, and size.
- **Cyber Rating (Technical Rating)** — A letter-grade external security rating derived from a hacker's-eye view of a company's internet-facing attack surface, using only open-source and non-intrusive data.
- **Open FAIR Financial Impact** — Quantifies vendor cyber exposure into probable financial loss using the Open FAIR model, translating technical risk into dollar terms for executives and boards.
- **Compliance Correlation** — Automatically maps external findings to more than a dozen recognized standards and frameworks (e.g., NIST, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA) to streamline vendor compliance assessment.
- **FocusTags** — Timely tags that flag vendors affected by specific emerging vulnerabilities or campaigns, helping teams prioritize response to active threats.

## Achievements

- Pioneered security ratings designed from a hacker's perspective, beginning as NormShield in 2016.
- Introduced the Ransomware Susceptibility Index (RSI), an early predictive ransomware-likelihood score.
- Raised a $22M Series B led by Volition Capital in October 2021.
- Grew to 500+ customers globally.
- Recognized among the top-recommended vendors in the security ratings space and featured in industry innovator spotlights.

## Latest updates

- **2021-01** — NormShield rebrands to Black Kite and relocates headquarters from Vienna, VA to Boston, MA.
- **2021-10** — Closed a $22M Series B led by Volition Capital to expand marketing, customer success, channels, and partnerships.
- **2025-01** — Enhanced the Ransomware Susceptibility Index computation to reflect emerging risk indicators and published its annual ransomware report.

## Links

- Website: https://blackkite.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackkite
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/normshield
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BlackKite
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/normshield/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/black-kite
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-22