Former IBM X-Force Leader Caleb Barlow Appointed to Searchlight Cyber’s Board of Directors

Portsmouth, UK & Boston, MA - March 26 2024 - Searchlight Cyber, the dark web intelligence company, has appointed Caleb Barlow from Cyberbit and Charlesbank Capital Partners to its board of directors. Searchlight will leverage Caleb’s expertise in pioneering new approaches in threat intelligence and cybersecurity as it expands its market share and aggressively adds to the capabilities of its dark web intelligence platform.

Caleb Barlow is currently CEO of Cyberbit, a leading cybersecurity skills development platform, and is also an advisory director with Charlesbank Capital Partners, where he has supported the firm’s investments in cybersecurity and threat intelligence. He was previously CEO of Cynergistek/Redspin, a publicly traded cyber security services firm operating in regulated industries including healthcare and the defense industrial base. Prior to that, he spent 16 years at IBM where he led the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence team. In 2016, he built X-Force Command – part of a $200M IBM investment in global incident response services.

His appointment follows Searchlight’s recent investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners, a U.S. private investment firm based in Boston and New York. The investment will help the company accelerate product development as it focuses on delivering market-first innovation, in particular, through the use of AI on features that enable organizations to action dark web intelligence faster and more accurately.

Caleb Barlow commented: “I am delighted to have been appointed to the board of Searchlight, a company that we chose to invest in based on its highly innovative approach to dark web threat intelligence. Searchlight has built a platform that gathers intelligence in an automated, comprehensive, and methodical way that no human can match. The focus on technology and the breadth and depth of Searchlight’s dataset give it huge potential to scale, putting it in the strongest position to meet the intelligence requirements of organizations as new threats emerge.”

Since its launch in 2017, Searchlight has worked in close collaboration with the law enforcement and cybersecurity community to develop the technical capabilities they need to tackle threats on the dark web. It has focused on building tools that use automation and AI to gather intelligence from the vast amount of data on the dark web in a format that is simple for security professionals to action. This includes features like dark web traffic monitoring that are unique in the threat intelligence industry.

Ben Jones, CEO and Co-Founder of Searchlight Cyber commented: “We are pleased to have an expert of Caleb Barlow’s caliber joining our board. A cybersecurity stalwart with a proven track record of pioneering new approaches and rapidly scaling cybersecurity platforms, Caleb brings incredibly valuable expertise to our business as we look to double down on our progress and grow Searchlight both organically and through acquisition. Moreover, he brings deep knowledge of the challenges facing the cybersecurity industry, including the intelligence requirements of SOC teams and the solutions they need to fulfill their role in protecting an organization.”

Darren Battistoni, Managing Director of Charlesbank commented: “Caleb’s threat intelligence expertise has proved invaluable in informing Charlesbank’s investments in this fast-growth area of cybersecurity. We’re excited for him to join Searchlight’s board, where his wealth of knowledge and experience will help guide the company in its next phase of growth.”