Neon Cyber aims to shift the focus of current cybersecurity from infrastructure to people. Neon Cyber emerged from obscurity on September 16th after raising seed funding from Silverton Partners in April 2025.
See also: Cybersecurity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Many of the cybersecurity mitigations were designed years ago to protect infrastructure and data, which was right at the time. However, the way companies use the internet has changed. Cloud computing and remote work have accelerated the breakdown of the perimeter system, and the arrival of artificial intelligence has increased the speed of attacks. The old methods no longer work, yet cybersecurity has not adapted its primary defense.
The need now is to move security closer to the cause of insecurity – which is people, not infrastructure. People are falling victim to phishing and social engineering, causing or enabling breaches, and artificial intelligence makes both much more effective.
That’s the foundation behind Neon Cyber. “We believe that workforce security is the missing piece in today’s cybersecurity technologies,” says Cody Pierce, co-founder and CEO. “For too long, organizations have invested heavily in protecting infrastructure while leaving people exposed.”
See also: CISO: Human-centric cybersecurity is gaining ground
The approach is to sit in the browser and interpose itself between the human resource and almost all threats. The browser is both the primary operational tool and a difficult technology to secure – it has become the user’s de facto unprotected operating system. Neon’s purpose is not to restrict the user (which was the primary approach in the past, adding friction and disrupting work) but to protect the company from bad outcomes caused by the user unintentionally through the browser, while also providing visibility into the browser. The solution is a browser extension. If deployed on managed devices, it is immune to evasion or disruption by the user.
The extension’s phishing protection illustrates the platform’s functionality. Current efforts attempt to block malicious URLs that are compromised through the browser – but this is a futile effort given the depth and complexity of redirects now in use. It is nearly impossible to create a list of URLs to block. At the same time, the quality of social engineering has been enhanced by artificial intelligence.
Instead of blocking everything, Neon tracks phishing until it can decide whether to block or allow. At some point, it can become certain that it is phishing. “We make this decision through artificial intelligence and behavioral algorithms built into the platform,” Pierce explains. The customer can configure the platform to automatically block progress in real time or issue a warning to the user.
See also: The biggest security gaps after the summer holidays
It’s not just a process to protect the user from causing harm. Because Neon resides in the browser, it gives the company’s security team a new depth of visibility, providing a detailed forensic view of what’s going on. If the platform is configured to simply warn the user about phishing, that warning could potentially be ignored or missed, and the malware could be downloaded.
🔒 Protect your privacy with Proton VPN
Swiss VPN from the creators of Proton Mail — strict no-logs policy, strong encryption, and built-in NetShield that blocks ads, trackers, & malware.
- ✔ No-logs, based in Switzerland (except 14-Eyes)
- ✔ NetShield: blocks ads, trackers & malicious domains
- ✔ Covers all devices — free version available
The link is an affiliate link — SecNews may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. It does not affect the independence of our article writing.
