GBHackers 2026 buyer's guide series compares 12 tools each across EPM, CIEM, and DSPM, flagging billing-model risk and acquisition-driven consolidation

Three GBHackers editorial buyer's guides (2026-09-11, 2026-09-16, 2026-09-17) each compare 12 security tools: the EPM guide ranks CyberArk and BeyondTrust as enterprise leaders; the CIEM scorecard puts Tenable (Ermetic) first at 4.70 ahead of CyberArk and…

GBHackers published three procurement-focused buyer's guides in September 2026, each an editorial assessment (not a product release or incident report) comparing 12 tools in a different category. The endpoint privilege management (EPM) guide (2026-09-11T07:04:10Z) evaluates 12 tools on elevation control, manageability, and pricing model, arguing that standing local-admin rights fuel ransomware and lateral movement and that removing them is a high-impact control cyber insurers increasingly mandate; it ranks CyberArk and BeyondTrust as enterprise-depth leaders with PAM integration, places Delinea, Heimdal, and ManageEngine in the mid-market, and Admin By Request and CyberFOX AutoElevate in the SMB/MSP segment, with pricing generally per endpoint or per user; ThreatLocker combines per-application elevation with deny-by-default allowlisting on one agent, Microsoft Intune EPM is offered as a bundled option for Entra estates, and Admin By Request provides a free tier with OPSWAT scanning on elevated installs. The cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) scorecard (2026-09-16T07:37:04Z) evaluates 12 vendors on permission analytics depth, JIT enforcement, non-human identity coverage, pricing predictability, and bundle leverage: Tenable (Ermetic) leads at 4.70, followed by CyberArk and Wiz, while Microsoft's retirement of Entra Permissions Management (CloudKnox) forces existing customers into migration cycles; CIEM pricing spans per-identity, per-resource, per-workload, credit-based, and quote-based models, non-human identity counts drive pricing and should be audited before purchase, Britive prices standalone just-in-time access, and CyberArk monetizes zero-standing-privilege enforcement. The newest guide, on data security posture management (DSPM) (2026-09-17T10:33:38Z), compares 12 vendors including Palo Alto Networks (Dig), BigID, Wiz, Symmetry Systems, Varonis, CrowdStrike (Flow Security), Cyera, and Tenable (Eureka) across billing units such as per-TB scanning, per-data-store, per-identity, and pay-as-you-go; it warns that per-TB data-volume billing can double costs by year three because scan volume grows with data, advises negotiating scan-volume caps and clarifying whether shadow copies and dev clones count as billable data, and notes that consolidation reshaped shortlists with Flow Security acquired by CrowdStrike, Eureka by Tenable, Dig by Palo Alto Networks, and Wiz by Google, while Cyera leads the independents and BigID and Varonis bring…

• All three reports are GBHackers editorial buyer's guides comparing 12 tools each, explicitly assessments rather than product releases or incident reports.
• EPM guide (2026-09-11T07:04:10Z): 12 endpoint privilege management tools evaluated on elevation control, manageability, and pricing model; standing local-admin rights are argued to fuel ransomware and lateral movement, a control cyber…
• EPM rankings: CyberArk and BeyondTrust are enterprise-depth leaders with PAM integration; Delinea, Heimdal, and ManageEngine are mid-market; Admin By Request and CyberFOX AutoElevate target SMB and MSP local-admin removal workflows;…
• EPM product notes: ThreatLocker combines per-application elevation with deny-by-default allowlisting on one agent; Microsoft Intune EPM is a bundled option for Entra estates; Admin By Request offers a free tier with OPSWAT scanning on…
• CIEM scorecard (2026-09-16T07:37:04Z): 12 vendors scored on permission analytics depth, JIT enforcement, non-human identity coverage, pricing predictability, and bundle leverage; Tenable (Ermetic) leads at 4.70, followed by CyberArk and…
• Microsoft discontinued Entra Permissions Management (CloudKnox), forcing existing customers into migration cycles.
• CIEM pricing spans per-identity, per-resource, per-workload, credit-based, and quote-based models; non-human identity counts drive CIEM pricing and should be audited before purchase; Britive prices standalone just-in-time access; CyberArk…
• DSPM guide (2026-09-17T10:33:38Z): compares 12 vendors including Palo Alto Networks (Dig), BigID, Wiz, Symmetry Systems, Varonis, CrowdStrike (Flow Security), Cyera, and Tenable (Eureka) on billing units: per TB scanned, per data store,…