Stairwell protects companies from sophisticated cybersecurity threats with Claude

Stairwell uses Claude to analyze and summarize complex security data, helping protect companies from sophisticated cybersecurity threats, giving them the confidence to know if, when, and where malware has ever been on their systems.

With Claude, Stairwell:

• Processes security data with 40,000+ characters
• Analyzes complex security data with minimal prompt engineering
• Converts technical security findings into clear, actionable insights for teams of all experience levels

Understanding modern cybersecurity challenges

Organizations face a new breed of cyber threats. Instead of common malware easily detected by traditional security tools, attackers create custom attacks targeting specific companies. "If you're a bank, it's worth an attacker's time to make special malware just for you," said Ben Smith, VP of Engineering at Stairwell.

This targeted approach overwhelms traditional security defenses. Security teams can collect vast amounts of data about potential threats but struggle to quickly identify and act on the most critical issues. "Our number one problem is simplifying and summarizing complex data," said Smith. Security teams need tools that can both detect sophisticated attacks and help them understand complex threats in real time.

Why Stairwell chose Claude

Stairwell selected Claude for two key advantages: its ability to process massive amounts of security data and its natural ability to understand complex technical information without extensive guidance.

Claude's large context window allows Stairwell to analyze more data at once. "The context window is so much larger. We can literally take our API responses which were pretty big—probably 30-40,000 characters—and just paste it into Claude," said Smith.

Claude also excels at understanding technical data without requiring extensive instructions. Unlike other AI models that need detailed guidance about data structure and specific fields to extract, Claude can naturally interpret complex security data. "We didn't have to tell Claude the schema of our response. We just pasted the API call results into it and said 'Can you summarize this in English?' and it does a really good job," said Smith. This simplicity extends to how the team interacts with Claude. While other AI models required complex prompting, Claude delivers better results with simple instructions: "The best prompt for Claude was 'Can you summarize this for me?'"

How Claude powers advanced threat detection

While Stairwell's proprietary Maleval system handles core malware detection, Claude enhances their platform's ability to process and explain security threats. At the core of their solution, Claude analyzes programs and files collected from customer systems, helping identify potentially malicious software that traditional security tools might miss.

Claude enhances Stairwell's security platform in three key ways:

1. Threat Analysis: Security analysts use Claude to analyze detailed technical reports about suspicious file behaviors, converting complex findings into clear, actionable summaries.
2. Code Intelligence: The team leverages Claude for internal code generation and codebase search. The large context window allows them to search and understand their extensive codebase more effectively.
3. Security Reporting: Claude transforms raw security data into accessible reports that help teams quickly understand and respond to threats. This capability has proven crucial in Stairwell's work protecting presidential campaigns and critical infrastructure.

This comprehensive approach allows Stairwell to deliver sophisticated security analysis that would typically require extensive expertise to interpret. The combination of Stairwell's deep security expertise and Claude's advanced summarization capabilities creates a powerful solution for modern cybersecurity challenges.

Transforming security analysis for professionals

With Claude, Stairwell is working to democratize how security teams process and understand threat data. Traditionally, interpreting complex security information required years of specialized experience. Now, Claude helps summarize technical security data into clear insights that any security professional can understand and act on. "We used to produce a list of results that only an expert in security with 20 years of experience could understand. But anyone else would need training and time to digest," said Smith.

By making sophisticated security analysis accessible to professionals at all experience levels, Stairwell helps organizations build more capable security teams. "It's not about saving time but making the tool accessible to a wider audience," said Smith.

Moving toward an AI-powered security future

As cybersecurity threats grow in sophistication and frequency, Stairwell stands at the forefront of next-generation defense. Protecting presidential campaigns, critical infrastructure, and major financial institutions requires a new approach to security. "The number of attacks is only going to go up and our defenses have to get faster, automated, and better," said Smith.

Looking ahead, Stairwell plans to expand Claude's capabilities across their platform, democratizing access to sophisticated security analysis. Through their partnership with Anthropic, they aim to create a future where advanced threat detection isn't limited to seasoned experts, but is accessible to all security professionals working to protect critical systems. By combining Stairwell's security expertise with Claude's AI capabilities, they're building a more secure digital future—one where organizations of all sizes can defend against sophisticated threats.