Frequently asked questions
Straight answers on pricing, onboarding, each service, support and what we do not do. cAIberOps (SY-ber-ops) runs the services described here. If your question is not below, call (202) 602-6035 or write to team@caiberops.com.
Last updated: November 7, 2026
Getting started
What is a managed security service provider?
A managed security service provider, or MSSP, runs security for you: the licenses, the configuration, the daily review, the investigation and the reporting, for a monthly price per user or per device. cAIberOps (SY-ber-ops) is an MSSP for small and medium businesses, with three managed services, email, endpoint and AI, and a license-only route for teams that run the product themselves.
How soon can you start?
Email protection connects through your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenant's API the day we talk, in Monitor only. After the two-week assessment, onboarding is one or two sessions. Endpoint rollout is planned in those sessions, a few machines first. Managed AI Security starts with the free Shadow AI Discovery.
What is the free two-week assessment?
Our email protection runs beside your current filter in Monitor only for two weeks. It observes and reports; it makes no changes and no MX record is touched. You get a written report of what was flagged and what we would have done with each item. It is the Managed Email Security offer only.
What is the Shadow AI Discovery?
A no-charge report of which AI tools are in use across your company, approved or not, and what kinds of data flow into them. It is the Managed AI Security starting point.
Which service should we start with?
For a typical office, Managed Email Security, because email is where phishing and fake invoices arrive, and the free two-week assessment shows you your own mail before you decide. If an insurer or a client is asking for EDR, start with Managed Endpoint Protection. If staff already use AI tools, the free Shadow AI Discovery is the quickest first step.
Will there be downtime during onboarding?
No. Email security connects through your tenant's API with no MX change and no mail interruption. The endpoint agent is rolled out a few machines at a time, in the onboarding session, around your working hours. The AI client is pushed through Intune or your RMM with no change to the tools your team uses.
What does the free assessment touch?
No change is made. The email assessment runs in Monitor only for two weeks; the Shadow AI Discovery reads usage and reports it. Both end with a report. You decide what happens next.
Do we need to install software?
Email security: no, it connects through the Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace API. Endpoint protection: a lightweight agent on each device, rolled out in the onboarding session. AI security: a browser extension and a desktop client, pushed through Intune or your RMM in the onboarding session.
Pricing and billing
How much do managed security services cost?
Managed Email Security starts at $6.40 per user per month, $5.60 for registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Managed Endpoint Protection starts at $8 per endpoint per month. The Email + Endpoint Bundle starts at $12.40 per user per month and includes one endpoint per user. Managed AI Security is quoted per user per month after the free Shadow AI Discovery. Options are quoted on the call. Prices include the license and the managed service. Monthly prices, billed yearly.
How does billing work?
A yearly subscription, billed yearly, no multi-year term unless you ask for one. Renewal notice goes out 30 days before the term ends, and no renewal happens without your approval.
Do nonprofits pay less?
Yes. Registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits pay $5.60 per user per month on Managed Email Security. Monthly prices, billed yearly.
Can we start with one service and add the others later?
Yes. Many start with email. Adding endpoint protection later moves you to the Email + Endpoint Bundle, which saves $2 per user versus buying separately and includes one endpoint per user; additional endpoints are $8 per endpoint per month. AI security is quoted on its own. Monthly prices, billed yearly.
Is there a contract?
No multi-year contracts and no onboarding fee. Pricing is per user or per endpoint per month on a simple yearly subscription; the current price is shown in the pricing section.
What happens after the year-end offer ends?
Managed Email Security is $8 per user per month at list. The offer price applies to 12-month agreements signed by December 31, 2026, new customers only. Monthly prices, billed yearly.
Is there a minimum or maximum number of users?
No minimum and no cap. Pricing and service are the same for a ten-person office and for a company with several hundred staff: per user or per endpoint, the same team, the same report.
Managed Email Security
What is managed email security?
A dedicated protection layer on top of Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, run by a provider: the filtering license plus the people who review the quarantine, handle release requests and investigate what gets through. cAIberOps (SY-ber-ops) provides both for one per-user price.
Which email platforms do you support?
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. The assessment, onboarding and posture report are the same on either.
How long does a release request take?
A clear-cut case is released the same day. If the message looks like a payment change or a lookalike sender, we confirm with the sending company by phone first; when they are not reachable, we leave a message, keep the email held and tell you where it stands. No message is released on your behalf until the sender confirms.
Do you change our MX records?
No. We connect to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace through the tenant's API. Your mail flow and your existing filter stay as they are.
What will my staff notice?
A daily digest of what was held, with a one-click release request. The rest of their mail is unchanged.
What does the license tier include?
The starts-at price includes the full threat-protection tier for email: anti-phishing on incoming and internal mail, known malware blocking, sandboxing of unknown attachments, attachment cleaning, click-time link checks, account takeover detection and unauthorized app detection. Collaboration and file-sharing coverage, data loss prevention, archiving, DMARC management and posture management are optional and quoted on request.
Managed Endpoint Protection
What is managed endpoint protection?
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) on each laptop, desktop and server, run by a provider. cAIberOps (SY-ber-ops) supplies the license and the team that investigates the alerts, isolates an infected machine, restores files and reports monthly, for one per-endpoint price.
What is the difference between EDR and antivirus?
Antivirus matches files against a list of known malware. Endpoint detection and response also watches behavior on the device, so it can stop ransomware and fileless attacks a list has not seen, restore encrypted files from snapshots and record what happened for the investigation.
Does it work when a laptop is offline?
Yes. Anti-malware, anti-ransomware, behavioral analysis and forensics run on the device and keep working without a connection. Sandboxing of new downloads and bot blocking resume when the machine reconnects, and logs and forensics upload then.
Is this the same as MDR?
In industry terms the tool is EDR and the service is MDR, managed detection and response. Managed Endpoint Protection is both: the EDR license on the device and the people who run it, with 24/7 monitoring and support, for one price. There is no separate MDR fee.
Does it replace our antivirus?
Yes. Anti-malware is part of the platform, so a separate antivirus is not needed. How the built-in Windows or macOS protection coexists with it is set on the call.
What happens when a machine is infected?
Illegitimate encryption is stopped and encrypted files are restored from the platform's snapshots. We investigate the forensic report, isolate the machine from the network if needed, and bring it back clean. You get a plain-English account of what happened.
Managed AI Security
What is managed AI security?
A service where a security provider discovers, monitors and controls how your employees use AI: web tools, desktop AI apps, coding assistants and AI agents. cAIberOps (SY-ber-ops) runs the platform, writes the policy with you, handles exceptions and reports monthly.
Will it block ChatGPT?
Only if you decide so. The usual policy is approved tools with data protection on, tolerated tools with limits, and blocked tools with a simple way to ask us to evaluate a new one. A company ChatGPT account and a personal login can carry different rules.
How is it priced?
Managed AI Security is quoted per user per month after the free Shadow AI Discovery. The price is per user and does not change with the number of AI tools or agents a person uses. Monthly prices, billed yearly. No onboarding fee, no multi-year contract.
Is this employee surveillance?
No. The content of normal AI use is not stored; the record shows which tools are used, by whom and for what kind of task. Only prompts that carry risk, such as a paste containing client data, are kept, and only your named admins can see them. Employees see a clear message when something is held and can ask us for a review.
Which AI tools are covered?
Web tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot; desktop apps such as ChatGPT Desktop and Claude Desktop; coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot and Cursor inside code editors; and AI agents and their connections, including MCP-based ones. New tools are picked up by discovery as they appear.
Support and the team
Is monitoring 24/7?
Endpoint protection is monitored 24/7, and support is 24/7 for each service: email or phone, any hour, and we act. Routine quarantine review, release requests and reports happen seven days a week.
Where is your team?
In the United States. Your alerts are investigated by US-based staff only; no work is handed to an offshore desk.
What is in the monthly report?
What was blocked, what was investigated and what changed, per service you take, in plain English, with the incident write-ups of the month. It is written so you can hand it to your insurer, your board or an examiner without editing it.
What does "no time cap" mean?
When something gets through, by email or on a device, we investigate it until it is resolved. There is no hourly bucket and no extra invoice for the investigation.
Do you work alongside our IT provider?
Yes. Your IT provider keeps running IT; we run security and send the report to both of you. If your provider wants to run the security product and you only want the license, use the license-only route.
License only and the price beat
How does the license price-beat work?
Send the written quote you hold from the vendor you use or are about to buy, for an email, endpoint or AI security license, dated within 30 days. We beat it with our license, like for like: a tier with the same capabilities, the same user or device count, the same term, license compared with license. Your team runs the product; we handle the license, a free trial set up with you, guidance when you need it, a monthly check-in with reports and a renewal heads-up 30 days out.
Who deploys and manages it?
Your team or your IT provider. We handle the license, the free trial, guidance when you need it, a monthly check-in with reports and the renewal heads-up 30 days out. We do not touch your MX records.
Does the quote have to be for the same vendor?
No, and it is usually not. The quote we beat comes from the vendor you use today or are about to buy from. We compare like for like: a tier with the same capabilities on the device or the mailbox, the same user or device count, the same term, license against license.
Does the price change if we add or remove users mid-term?
No. Once the annual license is placed the price holds for the term. Headcount is adjusted at renewal.
What we do not do, and who we are
Do you offer penetration testing, vulnerability scanning or compliance consulting?
No. We run managed email, endpoint and AI security and document it. We do not perform pen tests or vulnerability scans, or certify anyone for CMMC. We do not write compliance policies, WISPs or System Security Plans. The one policy we do write with you is the AI acceptable-use policy, as part of Managed AI Security, because we enforce it.
What is it built on?
Check Point: Email Security (formerly Avanan and Harmony Email and Collaboration), Endpoint Security (formerly Harmony Endpoint) and Workforce AI Security (formerly GenAI Protect). cAIberOps (SY-ber-ops) is an authorized Check Point partner; the platform is Check Point's, and the policy, the tuning, the investigation and the reporting are ours.
Do you help with HIPAA, CMMC, FTC Safeguards or a cyber insurance questionnaire?
We provide controls that support those requirements: managed email security, endpoint detection and response, AI usage controls and a monthly report of what was caught. Those support the technical controls asked about in a HIPAA risk review, a CMMC or NIST 800-171 control set, an FTC Safeguards program or an insurance application. We do not certify compliance, we are not a C3PAO, and we do not write your policies, except the AI acceptable-use policy we enforce.
Where are you located?
McLean, Virginia, at 1400 Chain Bridge Rd, Unit 200. Services are delivered remotely nationwide, with a US-based team.
Still a question? Ask the people who run it.
Call (202) 602-6035, write to team@caiberops.com, or book 15 minutes. We reply quickly, seven days a week.