Cyrex

Main service(s)

Cyrex is a consultancy offering services in the following three pillars:

• Offensive security / pentesting with a focus on application security and the underlying network infrastructure
• Load testing to ensure scalability and performance of digital platforms
• Software development, with a focus on either secure development, fintech and/or new product development.

Cyrex currently has a strong foothold in the gaming and entertainment niches, where they can leverage their specialist knowledge to provide more comprehensive and in depth coverage with regards to security and load testing.

As the entertainment and gaming niches are often early technology adopters, Cyrex builds on its gained experience with these technologies to serve additional markets, most notably fintechs or high-tech saas solutions.

Finally, Cyrex has a development arm which focuses on secure coding or building initial versions of (IT) products. Here, they heavily focus on building the minimum viable product (MVP) and building up an internal team to support the product further.

Differentiators

Deep specialist knowledge

Cyrex has built up deep specialist knowledge and experience in several high-tech sectors, notably the gaming, entertainment and fintech sectors.

Notably, Cyrex has both a testing (security and load) and building (application development) division. This means they have experience in both the breaking and building of applications.

Cyrex focuses on application security, mostly performing white-box testing (with access to source code). They feel this allows them to provide more in-depth tests and provide better remediations, which take the application and code into account.

Custom built testing tools

Cyrex has built up proprietary testing tooling, which they use for both load and security testing. In their main niches, these tools can go further than the standard tooling.

For example, with the specialised protocols used in the multiplayer gaming industry, it is next to impossible to use an intercepting proxy like burp (which is standard tooling often used in pentesting). The Cyrex custom tooling allows its testers to inject malicious payloads or behaviour in places where the standard tools don’t work, resulting in greater coverage and assurance for the customer.

Similarly, Cyrex had developed tooling to simulate customer behaviour on a massive scale (competing with tools like jmeter). For obvious reasons, companies with spikes in customer traffic (ie: new product launches, gaming, highly anticipated promotions) need to know their applications will keep on functioning. To provide this assurance, Cyrex can use its custom tools and experience to properly simulate this kind of traffic and help companies resolve potential bottlenecks and failure points.

Future plans

Cyrex is currently building on its success with early tech adopters to branch out to other tech heavy customers, such as SaaS companies in niches with a high expected level of security.

Company history

Founders Mathieu Huysman and Tim de Wachter met at HOWEST, where they both studied. In 2015, they founded Cyrex, then an offensive security company.

They first gained experience in the financial sector and after a while managed to land a project for a gaming company.

Realising the specific needs for this underserved niche, Mathieu and Tim invested in the space by starting to build custom tools for both security and load testing. This was a strategy that worked, as they built up a strong reputation in the niche.

Mathieu and Tim further built the company by listening to customer requests. In 2018, they bought a software development agency in order to assist their customers with solving the various security and load issues their testers uncovered.

Since then, the company has kept on growing. In 2024, they have a linkedin headcount of 37 people.