The Cybersecurity Experts Behind ShieldForce
Stop Threats. Drive Business Outcomes.
We are on a mission to make cybersecurity accessible and effective for businesses of all sizes.
Our Story
ShieldForce was founded to address the growing cybersecurity threats faced by businesses worldwide. While researching his master’s thesis in Computer Science, Obi identified a critical gap—financial losses and reputational damage from cyberattacks were rising exponentially, yet security providers struggled to keep up.
In May 2023, ShieldForce launched in Boston, Massachusetts, securing its first customers within weeks. The company leverages AI-driven behavioral threat detection, advanced email security, automated disaster recovery, and continuous cyber awareness training to protect businesses from cyber threats.
To refine its mission and scale effectively, ShieldForce joined the Founders Institute’s New York startup accelerator, positioning itself as a trusted cybersecurity partner for businesses of all sizes.
Our Mission
At ShieldForce, our Mission is to protect businesses from financial loss, reputational damage, and operational setbacks caused by cyber threats. We provide intelligent, adaptive, and industry-tailored cybersecurity solutions that safeguards what matters most: your people, data, and devices.
Our Vision
Our Vision is to be the trusted cybersecurity partner that helps organizations not only defend against today's evolving threats but thrive beyond them. We aim to make world-class security accessible, practical, and rooted in measurable value so every client stays resilient, respected, and ready for what's next.
Obi Ibeto — Founder & CEO
Obi Ibeto is a cybersecurity practitioner and researcher with over 15 years of experience designing and managing security programs for complex, compliance-driven environments. He holds a Master of Science in Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence and conducted his graduate research on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, developing a hybrid recommendation model for aligning organizational security controls to regulatory obligations across healthcare and regulated industries.
That research directly shaped the ShieldForce operating model. Obi recognized that most managed security providers built generic products that did not address the operational reality of healthcare delivery: distributed care teams, lean administrative staff, no dedicated IT resources, and simultaneous audit obligations from HIPAA, HRSA, SHIN-NY, and cyber insurers. He built ShieldForce to close that gap with a model grounded in NIST CSF 2.0 principles and designed for practical deployment in resource-constrained clinical environments.
In May 2023, Obi founded ShieldForce in Boston, Massachusetts, and secured the company's first healthcare clients within weeks of launch. Since then, ShieldForce has grown to serve home healthcare agencies, community health centers, hospice providers, and regulated small businesses across Massachusetts, New York, and beyond.
Before ShieldForce, Obi applied security frameworks across enterprise environments where compliance, operational continuity, and incident response needed to coexist with care delivery and business operations. That practitioner background informs how ShieldForce scopes, deploys, and sustains cybersecurity programs for organizations that cannot afford downtime or compliance gaps.
Obi Ibeto
Founder & CEO, ShieldForce Corporation
MSc Computer Science • 15+ Years • NIST CSF 2.0 Researcher
Recognition & Industry Validation
ShieldForce and its founder have been recognized by leading programs for business excellence, innovation, and community impact.
Nasdaq Milestone Circles
Selected for Nasdaq's Milestone Circles program, recognizing founders building high-impact technology companies with scalable potential.
Comcast RISE Award
Recipient of the Comcast RISE Award, honoring small businesses with demonstrated growth potential and meaningful community contribution.
Chase Coaching for Impact
Recognized through Chase's Coaching for Impact initiative, supporting founders driving measurable outcomes in their industries.
Black Ambition Prize Semifinalist
Advanced to the semifinalist stage of the Black Ambition Prize, Pharrell Williams' initiative supporting high-growth startups founded by Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs.
Founders Institute Graduate
Graduate of the Founders Institute New York accelerator, one of the world's largest pre-seed startup programs with a global network of operators and investors.
Home Care Alliance Partner
Preferred cybersecurity partner of the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, serving member agencies with exclusive access to ShieldForce managed protection programs.
Why ShieldForce Focuses on Home Healthcare, Community Health Centers, and Hospice
Most managed security providers serve everyone and specialize in nothing. ShieldForce made a deliberate choice to focus on healthcare and regulated care delivery because the stakes are fundamentally different. Home healthcare agencies, community health centers, federally qualified health centers, and hospice providers all carry protected health information across distributed, often mobile workforces. They operate under HIPAA, face HRSA oversight, and are increasingly subject to state-level frameworks like New York's SHIN-NY. A generic MSSP cannot serve this environment effectively.
Obi built ShieldForce around this insight. His research on NIST CSF 2.0 showed that security control effectiveness is directly tied to contextual fit: the right control, applied to the right operational profile, produces measurable risk reduction. For a home healthcare agency with 40 field nurses, the risk profile is different from a 200-seat law firm. The threat vectors, the compliance obligations, the staff training needs, and the incident response playbook all differ. ShieldForce operationalizes this distinction into every program it delivers.
The mission is clear: make enterprise-grade cybersecurity accessible, operationally realistic, and financially defensible for the organizations delivering care to the most vulnerable patients in America. That means no IT team required, predictable per-user pricing, healthcare-aware deployment, and HIPAA and HRSA documentation included as standard. It is not a feature list — it is a design decision made at the founding of the company and reinforced by every client engagement since.
Academic Foundation: NIST CSF 2.0 Research
No other managed security provider in the home healthcare and FQHC space has this research backing their methodology. It is a genuine competitive moat.
Obi Ibeto's graduate thesis focused on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 and its application to organizations with constrained resources and high regulatory exposure. The research developed a hybrid recommendation model that maps an organization's risk profile, compliance obligations, and operational context to prioritized control sets from the NIST CSF 2.0 framework. The model was designed specifically for environments where generic security frameworks produce either over-engineered programs or dangerous coverage gaps.
For healthcare providers, this is directly relevant. HIPAA mandates a risk-based approach, not a prescriptive control list. The NIST CSF 2.0 provides a structured methodology for executing that risk-based approach across five functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Obi's research translated this framework into a practical implementation guide for organizations that have no dedicated security team and must demonstrate compliance to multiple regulators simultaneously.
That academic foundation is embedded in how ShieldForce builds and maintains client programs. Control selection, documentation design, training program structure, and incident response planning all reflect the hybrid model developed through this research. Clients benefit from a methodology that is peer-reviewed in its design, not just marketed as best practice.
Our Core Values
Resilience
We adapt and thrive in the face of challenges. Our team remains committed to delivering consistent protection and improvement, no matter how fast the threat landscape evolves.
Family Oriented
We believe in building strong relationships within our team and with our clients. At Shield Force, you are more than just a customer; you are part of a trusted, supportive community.
Customer Obsessed
Everything we do begins and ends with our clients. We go above and beyond to understand their needs, protect their interests, and deliver meaningful outcomes that help them grow securely.
Honesty
We operate with integrity and transparency at all levels. From how we communicate to how we deliver our services, we are open, accountable, and trustworthy.
Spirit of Excellence
We don’t settle for average. We are driven by a relentless pursuit of excellence; continuously refining our services, technologies, and approach to meet the highest standards in cybersecurity.
Trusted by Businesses Like Yours
Real results from businesses that chose ShieldForce for comprehensive cybersecurity protection
"ShieldForce handled our SHIN-NY compliance from end to end. Their readiness checklist made it clear exactly what we needed, and their team had us compliant before the deadline without any disruption to patient care."
"When we were audited for HIPAA compliance, everything was already documented and in place. ShieldForce gave us enterprise-grade cybersecurity at a price point our community health center could actually afford."
"Our field staff access patient records remotely on personal devices. ShieldForce locked that down fast — endpoint protection and email security stopped three phishing attacks in the first month alone."
"We had a ransomware scare at a sister agency and realized we were just as exposed. ShieldForce's disaster recovery plan and 24/7 monitoring gave our board the assurance they needed."
"Deploying across 200+ remote caregivers sounded impossible. ShieldForce handled the rollout in under two weeks and our staff barely noticed the transition — except that phishing emails stopped getting through."
"ShieldForce's security awareness training actually changed behavior. Our click rate on phishing simulations dropped from 34% to under 4% in 60 days. That's the kind of result that reduces our cyber insurance premium."
"ShieldForce handled our SHIN-NY compliance from end to end. Their readiness checklist made it clear exactly what we needed, and their team had us compliant before the deadline without any disruption to patient care."
"When we were audited for HIPAA compliance, everything was already documented and in place. ShieldForce gave us enterprise-grade cybersecurity at a price point our community health center could actually afford."
"Our field staff access patient records remotely on personal devices. ShieldForce locked that down fast — endpoint protection and email security stopped three phishing attacks in the first month alone."
"We had a ransomware scare at a sister agency and realized we were just as exposed. ShieldForce's disaster recovery plan and 24/7 monitoring gave our board the assurance they needed."
"Deploying across 200+ remote caregivers sounded impossible. ShieldForce handled the rollout in under two weeks and our staff barely noticed the transition — except that phishing emails stopped getting through."
"ShieldForce's security awareness training actually changed behavior. Our click rate on phishing simulations dropped from 34% to under 4% in 60 days. That's the kind of result that reduces our cyber insurance premium."
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