Find Cybersecurity Firm

find-cybersecurity-firm

Drive the ServiceGraph API (https://api.servicegraph.co) to find, shortlist, and enrich US cybersecurity firms.

Always pin service_provided:cybersecurity — that's the only relevant structured tag in the live catalog. Older skill docs and the catalog source mention sub-tags like pen-testing and security-audit, but in the current release none of those exist as separate tags — cybersecurity is the broad catch-all and every sub-type (pen-testing, red-team, vCISO, SOC 2 readiness, IR retainer, IAM, cloud security, AppSec) is a keyword substring search on firm text. Confirm via /v1/tags?include_values=1 once per session.

The industry tag also drifts between releases — newer catalogs use industry:cybersecurity, older ones used industry:security. Confirm the value via /v1/tags and pin both industry and service_provided:cybersecurity for safety.

Any HTTP client works (curl, fetch, requests). Examples below use curl.

When NOT to use this skill

• Consumer/personal cybersecurity ("my Gmail got hacked", "how do I secure my home wifi") — the catalog is B2B procurement only.
• In-house security hires (Security Engineer, CISO, SOC analyst).
• DIY/configuration questions ("how do I patch CVE-X", "configure firewall rules", "review this nginx config").
• Security-product comparisons (CrowdStrike vs SentinelOne, EDR vendors, SIEM vendors).
• Generic security knowledge ("explain zero-trust", "what is OWASP Top 10").
• Non-US firms.
• Individual freelance pen-testers / bug-bounty hunters / contract CISOs.

If the user is a business procuring external cybersecurity services (pen test, audit, vCISO, IR retainer, SOC 2 prep), this skill applies — defaults to fire on B2B procurement intent.

The four-tier funnel

Quota rule that matters: /search and /get charge per unique firm viewed per calendar month, not per call. Re-paging the same query is free. Two different filters that overlap charge once for the overlap. Re-fetching a firm you already pulled this month is free.

Session-start ritual

Before constructing any filter, call:

GET https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/tags?include_values=1

Cache the response for the conversation. Confirm the cybersecurity industry tag value name (cybersecurity or older security) and that cybersecurity is in the service_provided value list. The live catalog has only the broad service_provided:cybersecurity tag — there are no separate pen-testing / security-audit / appsec tags despite older docs sometimes mentioning them.

Field kinds you'll use most:

• categorical: industry (cybersecurity), state, pricing_model, company_size_signal, geography_served — op :
• tag_set_with_evidence: service_provided — Map<tag, evidence∈{low,medium,high}>. Op : with optional @evidence
• numeric: rating, review_count_total, founded_year — ops = >= <= > <
• presence: has:phone, has:clutch, has:rating, has:linkedin_company, …
• keyword: free-text substring across firm name / brand / title / meta / legal_name. Many sub-types (vCISO, SOC 2, IR retainer, IAM, AppSec) are keyword-only.

Auth

/tags, /check, and /explore are anonymous. /search and /get require a bearer token.

Resolution rule — try these sources in order before triggering OTP:

1. Shell environment: $SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN. Most agent harnesses only inherit explicit exports, not dotenv files — so this catches the case where the user has it exported in ~/.bashrc / ~/.zshrc.

2. Project dotenv files: read .env.local then .env in the current working directory and look for a SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=… line. This is the common case the agent will miss otherwise — users frequently put the token in .env.local (gitignored) and expect it to "just work," but Claude Code and similar harnesses don't auto-load dotenv files. If you find it, use it; don't ask.

If found in any of the above, set Authorization: Bearer <token> on every authed request and skip OTP.

3. Otherwise, walk the user through OTP (one-time, ~30 s):
   • Ask the user for their email address.
   • POST /v1/auth/request-otp with {"email": "..."}. Returns 204; a 6-digit code lands in their inbox.
   • Ask the user to paste the code.
   • POST /v1/auth/verify-otp with {"email": "...", "code": "...", "name": "<a label like claude-cli>"}. Returns {"token": "vk_...", "expires_at": "...", "user": {...}}.
   • Use that token for the rest of the session.
   • Tell the user: "Save this as SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN to skip this step next time — either export SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=… in your shell rc, or add SERVICEGRAPH_TOKEN=… to a .env.local file in your project (gitignored). The token is shown once and lasts 90 days."

If a /search or /get returns 401 mid-session, the token expired or was revoked — re-run the OTP flow.

# 1. trigger the email
curl -X POST 'https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/auth/request-otp' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"you@example.com"}'

# 2. exchange the code
curl -X POST 'https://api.servicegraph.co/v1/auth/verify-otp' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"you@example.com","code":"123456","name":"my-cli"}'
# → { "token": "vk_…", "expires_at": "...", "user": {...} }

Filter DSL

One query parameter, GitHub-search-style.

filter   := orExpr
orExpr   := andExpr ("OR" andExpr)*
andExpr  := notExpr (("AND")? notExpr)*    # whitespace = implicit AND
notExpr  := ("NOT" | "-") notExpr | atom
atom     := "(" filter ")" | predicate
predicate:= IDENT op valueOrList | bareword
op       := ":" | "=" | ">=" | "<=" | ">" | "<"
valueOrList := value ("," value)*
value    := IDENT | NUMBER | tagAtEvidence
tagAtEvidence := IDENT "@" ("low"|"medium"|"high")
bareword := IDENT | NUMBER          # → keyword:<bareword>

Four rules that bite:

1. AND binds tighter than OR. a OR b c parses as a OR (b AND c). Use parens.
2. Comma list = OR within one predicate. state:CA,NY,TX matches any of the three.
3. Negation is -x or NOT x. Negative literals inside a comma list are not allowed: state:CA,-NY is rejected. Use state:CA -state:NY.
4. Bareword = keyword search. Any IDENT or NUMBER not followed by an operator becomes a free-text substring across name / brand / title / meta / legal_name. Multiple barewords AND.

Cybersecurity examples (validate yours with /v1/check; replace cybersecurity with whatever /v1/tags returns as the industry value):

industry:cybersecurity service_provided:cybersecurity
service_provided:cybersecurity pen-testing
service_provided:cybersecurity security audit soc 2
service_provided:cybersecurity vciso
service_provided:cybersecurity incident response retainer
service_provided:cybersecurity cloud aws
service_provided:cybersecurity application security sast
service_provided:cybersecurity rating>=4 has:clutch
service_provided:cybersecurity hipaa

When in doubt, hit /v1/check?filter=... first. (Note: the live catalog has no separate pen-testing / security-audit / appsec tags. Pin service_provided:cybersecurity and treat all sub-types as keywords.)

Sub-type → keyword mapping (all sub-types are keyword-only — the live catalog has only the broad service_provided:cybersecurity tag):

firm_id contract

firm_id is a stable 12-hex-char handle:

firm_id = sha256(apex.lower().rstrip(".")).hexdigest()[:12]

import hashlib
def firm_id(apex):
    return hashlib.sha256(apex.lower().rstrip(".").encode()).hexdigest()[:12]

echo -n "mandiant.com" | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' \
  | openssl dgst -sha256 -hex | awk '{print substr($2,1,12)}'

Recipes

A. Pen test for SOC 2

User: "Pen-testing firm for our SOC 2 audit."

GET /v1/explore?filter=industry:cybersecurity+service_provided:cybersecurity+pen-testing+soc 2
GET /v1/search?filter=industry:cybersecurity+service_provided:cybersecurity+pen-testing+soc 2&limit=10
GET /v1/get/<firm_id>     # ×3

B. vCISO for a healthcare-tech startup

User: "vCISO services for our healthcare-tech startup."

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:cybersecurity+vciso+(healthcare OR hipaa)

C. Incident response retainer

User: "Incident response retainer in case we get breached."

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:cybersecurity+incident response+retainer

If thin, drop retainer — most IR firms also offer retainer engagements.

D. Cloud security + AWS + HIPAA

User: "Cloud security consultancy familiar with AWS and HIPAA."

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:cybersecurity+cloud+aws+hipaa

E. Indirect intent — "we got breached"

User: "We got hit with a ransomware attack last week — we need help fast."

That's an emergency IR ask:

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:cybersecurity+incident response+ransomware&limit=10&order_by=relevance

Surface as urgent: skip /v1/explore, jump to /v1/search, present briefs immediately.

F. AppSec / SAST

User: "Application security firms experienced with code review and SAST."

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:cybersecurity+application security+(sast OR code review)

G. SOC 2 readiness ahead of enterprise sales

User: "SOC 2 readiness partner ahead of our enterprise sales push."

GET /v1/search?filter=industry:cybersecurity+soc 2+(readiness OR preparation)

H. BYO apex list — enrich domains

User pastes 8–20 cybersecurity firm domains. For each:

1. Compute firm_id locally.
2. GET /v1/get/<firm_id> — full bundle if in catalog, 404 if not.
3. Aggregate, present, flag the not-found ones.

Gotchas

• Always pin the cybersecurity industry tag. Without it, pen-testing / vciso / appsec keywords leak into IT-services or other industries that mention security.
• Confirm the industry value name via /v1/tags — older catalog releases used industry:security, newer ones may use industry:cybersecurity. Don't hardcode; check once per session.
• Refuse consumer-personal asks. "My Gmail got hacked", "how do I secure my home wifi", "should I use a VPN" — none of these are B2B procurement. The catalog is for businesses procuring security services.
• DIY/configuration questions ("patch CVE-X", "configure firewall rules", "review this Terraform") are NOT procurement.
• Security-product comparisons (EDR, SIEM, identity providers) are NOT procurement either.
• "Hire a security engineer / CISO" is recruiting, not procurement of a firm. Refuse.
• Bug-bounty / freelance pen-testers are out of scope (catalog is firm-level only).
• Many sub-types are keyword-only. Multi-word sub-types split into ANDed barewords (incident response → incident AND response).
• looks_not_pro_services 404 is not a bug. A firm_id may exist in /search but 404 on /get if it's been flagged. Skip and continue; not charged.
• /v1/explore k=20 suppression. When fewer than 20 firms match, the response is {"count": "<20", "suppressed": true, "breakdowns": {}}. Drilling further makes the count smaller. Broaden or escalate to /v1/search.
• Briefs from /search do NOT include apex, url, phone_primary, email_primary, legal_name, or address. If the user asks for contact info, you must /get/:id.
• Quota is per-user-per-month, deduped on first view. Re-views are free; re-pagination is free.

Errors

All errors return JSON: {"error": {"code": "...", "message": "..."}}.

End-to-end example

User: "Three pen-testing firms for our SOC 2 audit, 4-star ratings, ideally with HIPAA experience for a healthcare-tech context."

GET /v1/tags?include_values=1
GET /v1/check?filter=industry:cybersecurity+service_provided:cybersecurity+pen-testing+soc 2+hipaa+rating>=4
GET /v1/explore?filter=industry:cybersecurity+service_provided:cybersecurity+pen-testing+soc 2+hipaa+rating>=4
GET /v1/search?filter=...&limit=10
GET /v1/get/<firm_id>     # ×3

End of session: report X-Quota-Remaining-Month.