The Cybersecurity Firm Most Enterprises Have Never Heard Of Just Earned an EY Entrepreneur of the Year® Nod

Three consecutive Inc. 5000 appearances and back-to-back #1 MSSP honors — now the founder behind 2.5 million protected users earns EY recognition.

TAMPA, FL, UNITED STATES, April 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- When a wave of SonicWall-related attacks hit earlier this year, Ridge IT Cyber's clients saw the intrusion attempts detected and contained automatically — identities locked down user by user before attackers could move laterally. Organizations without that identity-first architecture got breached.

That outcome — the difference between a contained event and a business-impacting one — is why Ridge IT Cyber co-founder and CEO Chad Koslow has just been named a 2026 finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year^® Florida program, which includes entrepreneurs from both Florida and Puerto Rico. Regional winners will be announced June 12, 2026.

The thesis that built the company

Most cybersecurity vendors sell products against a checklist. Ridge IT Cyber was founded on the opposite premise: the tools only matter if the architecture survives a real attacker. That conviction — forged supporting some of the most demanding government environments in the world — has grown into a firm that today protects more than 2.5 million users across 160 countries, has delivered more than 1,500 Zero Trust implementations in the last three years, and maintains a 99% client retention rate.

It's also why Ridge IT Cyber has stacked recognition most MSSPs never see:
• Inc. Magazine's #1 MSSP in America — back-to-back, 2023 and 2024
• Inc. 5000 national list — three consecutive years (2023–2025)
• Inc. Regionals: Southeast — three consecutive years, including 2026
• CRN MSP 500 — 2025
• Zscaler Partner of the Year
• Okta Service Delivery Authorized - Okta Workforce Identity (OWI) and Okta Customer Identity (OCI)

Why this matters to the people buying security in 2026

The threat landscape moved faster last year than it has in a decade. Ransomware operators are compressing attacks from weeks to hours. Regulators — CMMC, PCI-DSS v4.0.1, FFIEC — are enforcing what used to be self-attested. And 68% of breaches still involve a human element, which means tooling alone is losing the fight.

"Security that works in 2026 isn't a product stack — it's an architecture," said Chad Koslow, CEO and co-founder of Ridge IT Cyber. "We built this firm because the companies who actually needed to be secure — defense contractors, banks, manufacturers running critical infrastructure — were being sold shelfware and audits. Our team wakes up every day thinking about one question: if a real attacker hits this environment tomorrow, does the client stay in business? Everything we build answers that question."

Ridge IT Cyber's approach — what the firm calls identity-first Zero Trust architecture — centralizes identity, continuously verifies every user and device, and eliminates the implicit trust that gets enterprises breached. Deployments complete in 90 days or less. Solutions are built around a vetted stack (CrowdStrike, Zscaler, Okta, Microsoft, Mimecast, KnowBe4, Qualys) that Ridge IT Cyber's own cyber range has stress-tested against thousands of reverse-engineered attacks annually.

"This recognition belongs to our team and our clients," Koslow added. "We're just getting started."
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For business leaders evaluating cybersecurity posture in 2026, Ridge IT Cyber offers no-obligation Zero Trust architecture briefings. Visit ridgeit.com or call (813) 839-2930 to schedule.
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About Ridge IT Cyber

Ridge IT Cyber is a Tampa-based cybersecurity and managed IT firm delivering Cloud, Zero Trust, and Cybersecurity Architecture solutions to commercial and federal organizations worldwide. Founded by Chad Koslow and his partner, the company was built on expertise developed through work supporting highly demanding government environments. Ridge IT Cyber serves clients in 160 countries across six continents, protects more than 2,500,000 users, and has delivered more than 1,500 Zero Trust-related projects and architectures in the past three years. Additional recognitions include Inc. Regionals: Southeast in 2024, 2025, and 2026; Inc. 5000 in 2023, 2024, and 2025, including recognition as the No. 1 MSSP in America in 2023 and 2024; and CRN MSP 500 in 2025. Ridge IT Cyber helps organizations align compliance requirements with resilient, real-world security performance.

About the EY Entrepreneur of the Year^® Program

Founded in 1986, the Entrepreneur of the Year program is one of the most established entrepreneur recognition programs in the United States. Finalists are evaluated by an independent panel of judges based on criteria including entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth, impact, and financial performance. The 2026 Florida judging panel includes leaders from organizations such as Miami Herbert Business School, Toorak Capital Partners, and Sonobi. Sponsors include PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh USA, SAP, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In Florida, regional Silver sponsors include ADP and Selective Insight.

Leigh Bruce
Ridge IT Cyber
lbruce@ridgeit.com

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