When the world shut down in early 2020, many startups were forced to pause, pivot, or give up entirely. For Arvind Parthasarathi, the founder and CEO of CYGNVS, the timing became an unexpected test of the very purpose behind his new company, helping organizations stay operational during moments of chaos. CYGNVS, pronounced “Sig-nus,” officially began on January 31, 2020, just six weeks before the global lockdown. From its first days, the company focused on helping others survive crises and continue functioning when everything seemed to fall apart.
The idea for CYGNVS took shape even earlier, when Parthasarathi worked on a global research initiative with nine universities, including Stanford, MIT, Oxford, and the University of Tokyo. The project aimed to create a standard of care for cybersecurity that would guide both boards and management. What emerged from that collaboration was a clear realization that most organizations were spending massive amounts of money trying to prevent cyber incidents, but very few were prepared for what to do when prevention failed. When systems shut down, emails stop working, and networks are breached, it is not the technical issue alone that brings a company to its knees. It is the confusion, the loss of communication, and the lack of an organized response. CYGNVS was built to solve that problem, giving organizations a structured way to act decisively when everything else stops working.
The company’s name comes from the idea of the Black Swan, the term for unexpected events that can upend entire systems. CYGNVS takes its name from the Latin word for swan, representing the company’s mission to prepare for the unpredictable. From the beginning, the goal was to help companies build resilience so that when disaster strikes, they can continue to move forward instead of breaking apart.
Unlike traditional cybersecurity tools that focus on keeping hackers out, CYGNVS assumes that a breach will eventually occur. Its platform is built as what Parthasarathi calls an “out of band” system, a secure environment that exists separately from a company’s main network. When the primary systems are compromised, teams can still communicate, coordinate, and make decisions inside CYGNVS. It is the digital version of an emergency shelter, a place where executives, lawyers, IT specialists, and communications staff can come together, work safely, and guide their organization through recovery.
That idea has proven powerful. Today, CYGNVS serves more than 2,500 organizations and supports around 50 new incidents every week. The success of the platform can be seen in what does not make the news. The incidents resolved through CYGNVS are the ones that do not become headlines, because companies using it are able to contain problems before they spiral out of control.
Many organizations have incident response plans that are hundreds of pages long, created to meet compliance requirements and then forgotten. CYGNVS changes that by turning those static documents into live, interactive workflows. Instead of searching for a binder or scrolling through endless PDFs, employees receive clear, step-by-step guidance that matches their role in the crisis. This simplicity matters because people in stressful situations cannot process long lists or complex instructions. They need to know what to do right now, then what comes next. CYGNVS delivers that kind of guidance directly, helping people act rather than freeze.
Preparation is another cornerstone of the company’s philosophy. CYGNVS encourages clients to run tabletop exercises, also known as rehearsals, where teams simulate real cyber incidents. These practice sessions build what Parthasarathi calls muscle memory, the ability to act automatically during a crisis. Many organizations now run monthly exercises using the same environment they would rely on during a real event, so when something happens, they are already familiar with the tools and processes. It is training in its most practical form, turning theory into instinct.
CYGNVS has been designed to work for every type of organization. Small businesses can use its out-of-the-box features to handle the basics of crisis management, while large enterprises can customize it to coordinate complex responses that might involve multiple countries, regulators, and external partners. This flexibility is critical because cybersecurity threats do not discriminate by size. A single breach can destroy a small company, while larger ones may suffer major financial and reputational damage. CYGNVS gives both the structure they need to respond and recover.
The landscape of cyber risk is changing quickly. Artificial intelligence is giving attackers new tools to create flawless phishing emails, fake messages, and realistic impersonations. These threats are faster, more targeted, and harder to spot. Parthasarathi believes that AI currently helps attackers more than defenders, because most AI systems learn from public data, while real incident details remain private. That means defensive AI has less real-world context to work with. In this environment, CYGNVS provides a controlled, secure space where organizations can manage responses confidently without exposing sensitive information.
Beyond cybersecurity, Parthasarathi often speaks about what it takes to build a company in such a demanding field. For him, everything comes back to finding product-market fit. Some founders start with a product idea, others begin with a deep understanding of the market’s pain points, but success requires both. Knowing exactly where the product meets the market’s needs determines how efficiently a company can grow and how effectively it can serve customers. This focus has guided CYGNVS since its beginning, allowing it to scale through a global crisis and emerge stronger.
As technology advances and threats become more sophisticated, CYGNVS continues to evolve. Parthasarathi’s vision goes beyond protecting systems; it is about restoring confidence when things go wrong. True resilience, he believes, is not the absence of failure but the ability to recover quickly and keep moving forward. CYGNVS gives companies that capability, helping them face uncertainty with clarity and return to business stronger than before.
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