Sysdig Secure vs XM Cyber comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Sysdig and XM Cyber are both solutions in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category. Sysdig is ranked #27 with an average rating of 8.0, while XM Cyber is ranked #30 with an average rating of 8.3. Sysdig holds a 1.8% mindshare in CSPM, compared to XM Cyber’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Sysdig users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of XM Cyber users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 17, 2024

Sysdig Secure and XM Cyber compete in the cybersecurity solutions category. While Sysdig Secure has its strengths, XM Cyber generally offers superior features, making it the preferred choice for those who prioritize comprehensive capabilities.

Features: Sysdig Secure provides cloud security features, real-time threat detection, and performance monitoring. XM Cyber offers attack simulation, automated security assessments, and comprehensive risk analysis. XM Cyber’s features are more robust and encompassing, making it preferable for comprehensive security needs.

Room for Improvement: Sysdig Secure could improve its integrations, scalability, and user management. XM Cyber could benefit from enhanced performance monitoring, easier setup processes, and better dashboard customizations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sysdig Secure offers a straightforward deployment process but has slow support response times. XM Cyber is easier to deploy and has responsive and helpful customer service, delivering a smoother deployment experience.

Pricing and ROI: Sysdig Secure is cost-effective but has mixed ROI according to user reviews. XM Cyber has higher costs but offers better ROI with its advanced features. Users believe XM Cyber’s higher cost is justified by its enhanced functionalities and return on investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Sysdig Secure vs. XM Cyber Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Sysdig Secure vs. XM Cyber

August 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 913,683 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Qualys TotalCloud

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 2.0%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sysdig Secure is 1.8%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of XM Cyber is 1.0%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys TotalCloud	2.0%
Sysdig Secure	1.8%
XM Cyber	1.0%
Other	95.2%

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021

Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees

Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats

The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.

Read full review

Mumu Muhaemin

DevSecOps Engineer at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Runtime threat detection has improved and security teams prioritize real Kubernetes risks

The best feature Sysdig Secure offers is threat detection. The threat detection feature on Sysdig Secure stands out compared to other solutions I have seen or used because Sysdig sees the actual behavior inside the container or kernel and correlates it with Kubernetes infrastructure, which makes detection both earlier and more precise in a cloud-native environment. Sysdig Secure has positively impacted our organization by improving visibility into our Kubernetes environment and focusing on real risk, which has reduced alert noise, improved threat detection at runtime, and made vulnerability management more efficient by prioritizing issues that actually affect running workloads.

Read full review

Stephen Owen

Group CISO at a insurance company with 51-200 employees

Has significantly improved risk visibility and optimized remediation efforts across dynamic environments

We tightly integrate with APIs, consuming feeds and open source data. We have integrated with XM Cyber, and we are elevating ourselves with AI and MCP tools as we view this as a forerunner to reducing the workload for our agents and IT staff. We're pushing all our security partners to provide AI and MCP tools. Our vision is for them to offer a chat interface where a junior IT or an experienced infrastructure engineer can ask for what needs to be patched next without using an interface. Their current interface is very usable and professional, ranking in the top tier of applications. Their reporting is good, offering custom reports, and their API integration is a new capability that serves us well. We have high expectations for the next generation, such as a chat interface to ask questions. However, everything has been very good. We push the boundaries with digital twins; I understand XM Cyber uses a similar concept of graph databases to map environments. I would like access to that and querying languages, enabling more informed business decisions. XM Cyber sees much of our estate, which is beneficial for making informed decisions, and we can harness those insights and data for business analytics. For instance, it could help us gain insights into change management—if a particular server impacts another and that server is supported by yet another server, we could glean significant insights for change management meetings.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I appreciate Qualys TotalCloud's ability to onboard any type of device with ease, including containers."

"The most valuable feature is the consolidated information that it provides from various platforms."

"TotalCloud provides the easiest and the best approach for cloud infrastructure management."

"Qualys TotalCloud helps you not just to identify misconfigurations, but you can actually also fix issues."

"Qualys TotalCloud has improved our security posture."

"The best feature would be the ability to create policies. It is easy to control and update policies as required."

"Qualys TotalCloud has saved our time by giving us better asset visibility and risk-based prioritization, as it has reduced the time spent manually reviewing CVEs and deciding what to address first."

"I depend heavily on the reports that I have from this tool."

More Qualys TotalCloud pros

"The log monitor is the most valuable feature."

"We appreciate this feature, especially when combined with CD monitoring. The implementation of requested features has been remarkable, such as scanning for compliance in CRM processes for the US government. We heavily rely on this feature to assess compliance with federal requirements."

"The proactiveness of the support has been fantastic. Every time we mention something in a meeting that we're trying to do, he proactively takes that as an investigation topic and looks into it. He'll provide the solution even though we might not have asked him to investigate it."

"Sysdig Secure has many strong foundational features like compliance and benchmark, security, network access management, and vulnerability management."

"I see Sysdig as the most comprehensive solution in comparison to its competitors."

"From a container-based standpoint, it offers excellent scalability to its users...I would tell those planning to use the solution that, from a container standpoint, it's excellent."

"In terms of measurable outcomes, I have seen a reduction in vulnerabilities, as Sysdig Secure can tell us how many vulnerabilities are present on a day-to-day report basis, which has improved our efficiency by more than 50% and helps us stay compliant with necessary regulations."

"The tool has the capability to conduct scans initially. It can perform scans on your virtual machines, physical machines, containers, and container images. A standout feature is its ability to scan offline container images stored in your container registry. Additionally, it can scan runtime images in your cluster or on your host machine. This allows for the detection of vulnerabilities in running containers, including loaded libraries. Notably, the tool can identify which library vulnerabilities are already present in your system. An added advantage is its capacity to take action beyond threat detection. It has the ability to block access and respond to encountered threats."

More Sysdig Secure pros

"Six weeks into using XM Cyber, we saw a compelling return on investment—primarily in risk reduction, with a specific issue our other security tooling did not pick up but XM Cyber did, reducing IT remediation time and saving over 60,000 US dollars per year while significantly lowering our loss exposure amount."

"XM Cyber permits us to identify if a zero-day vulnerability can affect our infrastructure; it helps me understand the company's total risk that we have in our infrastructure and workstation vulnerability, and it permits us to identify the real impact when we have a vulnerability."

"Since implementing XM Cyber, we have improved the way we are doing patching, focusing on the choke points in our patching cycle, and it improves the way we assess the risk."

"The platform's most valuable feature is attack simulation."

"It saves you money while making you more secure."

"XM Cyber made it clear that browser vulnerabilities were the top priority because the platform was able to examine how vulnerabilities within our estate could be exploited and what the path would be from some bad actor in order to exploit those vulnerabilities."

"What I personally like very much, from my experience, is that it is very reliable."

Cons

"An area for improvement would be to focus on risks related to AI, such as large language models and potential data leakage."

"The response part of the Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) module can be improved."

"In terms of improvement, remediation still belongs to the cloud team, which is one of the issues we faced with Qualys TotalCloud."

"The onboarding process is a bit difficult. In the initial phase, it is very difficult to understand the features, what the dashboard contains, and what criteria they are using."

"We would like to see Windows-based sensors available in Qualys, as this would make the platform more versatile and support a broader range of environments."

"In TotalCloud, I would suggest improvements in policy checks to cater to various inventory types like VPCs, subnets, S3 buckets, or IAMs. There is a lack of data segregation according to criticality or inventory."

"I would like the ability to disable certain default built-in policies as they can be misleading when creating dashboards. That is the top one."

"A feature improvement could be the inclusion of Windows OS support for container security, as it is currently only supported for Linux."

More Qualys TotalCloud cons

"I give it an eight because of the bugs, specifically the fix version bug where sometimes there is no fix version shown, and I wish Sysdig Secure would create a customizable UI that orders features by importance to enhance user experience."

"Perhaps, it could support more custom implementations, as our company utilizes custom implementations rather than standard ones. Configuring it requires a deep understanding and adjustment to our specific needs, which took some time. Other than that, I'm unsure about potential improvements. We were considering the possibility of compartmentalizing their tools. Currently, in Sysdig Secure, they bundle multiple features, and we are unable to use them individually. For instance, if we only need compliance scanning, we have to deploy the entire secure package. This is because of the way their agent functions, but I can't delve into more details."

"There was a security concern related to a specific feature. While the feature itself was promising, it posed a challenge. The situation revolved around code scanning. If your source code is hosted within your own premises, say on Bitbucket, you naturally wouldn't want your code to be accessible to external parties beyond your company. Keeping your code base private is a standard practice. However, in the case of code scanning using Sysdig Secure, they copy your code to their SaaS platform. This posed an issue for us. When we inquired about this, their response acknowledged the concern. In an upcoming release, they plan to enable code scanning within your on-premises environment through the assistance of an agent. This change is already in progress. While this tool stands out compared to existing solutions in the market, it's important to note that there are still some limitations to consider. Another drawback we encountered relates to our expertise with Kubernetes. The tool can monitor Kubernetes audit logs, triggering alerts and notifications. However, it falls short in terms of taking direct action based on these alerts. There are different methods of event capture, including through system labels and system calls, as well as via Kubernetes audit events. Notably, at the system level, Sysdig Secure can both detect and respond to events, allowing actions like blocking and warning. This proactive approach is effective at the system call level. However, when it comes to monitoring Kubernetes audit events, Sysdig Secure can only notify without being able to execute any further actions. It can't block access or containers. The vendor likened their role to that of a monitoring camera, observing events and sending notifications without the capacity to intervene. This limitation applies to Kubernetes audit events. Given that everything operates within our system, there is a workaround available: configuring system-level policies to block containers as necessary."

"Sysdig Secure needs to scale more for complete cloud-native coverage."

"Banks and financial institutions cannot use Sysdig Secure because it doesn't sell SaaS-hosted versions for under two hundred working nodes."

"The solution needs to improve overall from a CSPM standpoint since they can't compete with Wiz or Orca."

"The dashboard could be more simple and show the more important issues that are detected first. We'd like to be able to set it up so more important issues show up more prominently in the dashboard."

"Sysdig's biggest weakness is dashboarding and reporting. You have access to the data and can get everything you need, but we need the ability to summarize the information quickly in a format that senior leaders can understand. We report to the executive level and global board. I need to roll all that in-depth information into a quick summary, and their maturity level isn't there. I'm seeing that on the future road map, but it isn't there now."

More Sysdig Secure cons

"We have high expectations for the next generation, such as a chat interface to ask questions."

"We'd like to see a cheaper price."

"They could improve support because when we need to create a super case and escalate to resolve with technical support, they resolve our ticket in approximately two weeks."

"There are many interesting things about XM Cyber, but the part that can be improved is the mobile exposure and the IBM i specific equipment."

"We have not saved any time or effort, but we can prove that the effort involved around vulnerability management has been better spent to greater effect, and we've been able to demonstrate that vulnerabilities that do represent a high risk have been remediated more rapidly and more effectively."

"XM Cyber could identify all areas of vulnerability. They could expand the identification span for different areas."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive and may soon be considered overpriced."

"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility."

"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."

"Although Qualys TotalCloud is relatively expensive due to its unique automation features, its cost-effectiveness is rated an eight out of ten, with ten being the most costly."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market. Our partnership also provides us with additional benefits."

"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."

"The pricing is comparable. It is built into our other product, so I cannot piecemeal it. It is a part of our subscription."

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

"The solution's pricing depends on the agents...In short, the price depends on the environment of its user."

"It is quite costly compared to other tools."

"I am always going to say that it could be a little bit cheaper. I do feel that it is a little bit on the expensive side."

"In comparison to other cloud solutions, it's reasonably priced. However, when compared to in-house built open-source projects, it might be considered somewhat costly. The cost depends on whether someone sees the support provided by Sysdig as an advantage or if it's deemed unnecessary. Personally, I find the support to be excellent and consider it a good value."

"Sysdig is competitive. The quality matches the pricing. Obviously, everyone wants things to be cheaper, but if you're realistic, you acknowledge that quality service comes with a price. Sysdig is the gold standard for Kubernetes, and I wouldn't choose anything else. We live in Kubernetes. Everything is containerized, so that means a lot to us, and we're willing to make an investment."

"We have to pay standard licensing fees."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

16%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	34

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys TotalCloud?

The price is very expensive, actually.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?

In terms of improvement, remediation still belongs to the cloud team, which is one of the issues we faced with Qualys...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?

My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is regarding the cloud visibility that we were not having previously. Previous...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sysdig Secure?

Sysdig Secure works well for us, but there are a few areas for improvement, such as the alerting and notification sys...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Sysdig Secure?

Our primary use case for Sysdig Secure is runtime threat detection and vulnerability management.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Sysdig Secure?

My advice for others looking into using Sysdig Secure is to clearly define your primary use case before getting start...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for XM Cyber?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was that we have a large, complicated estate, and in the licens...

See all answers

What needs improvement with XM Cyber?

The roadmap is a disadvantage because this kind of technology should incorporate AI. At the moment, we don't have any...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for XM Cyber?

My major use case for XM Cyber is managing the services in our company, Prosegur Iberia, for Spain and Portugal. We d...

See all answers

Comparisons

Wiz vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 8% of the time

JupiterOne vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 6% of the time

Orca Security vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 6% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 5% of the time

More Qualys TotalCloud Competitors

Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 11% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 7% of the time

Wiz vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 6% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 5% of the time

Upwind vs Sysdig Secure

Compared 4% of the time

More Sysdig Secure Competitors

AttackIQ vs XM Cyber

Compared 8% of the time

Pentera vs XM Cyber

Compared 7% of the time

Wiz vs XM Cyber

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Security Exposure Management vs XM Cyber

Compared 6% of the time

Cymulate vs XM Cyber

Compared 6% of the time

More XM Cyber Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

September 2026

Download Qualys TotalCloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Sysdig Secure

August 2026

Download Sysdig Secure product report

Buyer's Guide

XM Cyber

August 2026

Download XM Cyber product report

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan

No data available

Overview

Qualys TotalCloud enhances security posture across cloud environments with continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, and risk visualization, ensuring efficient threat assessment and automated remediation for improved cyber risk reduction.

Qualys TotalCloud offers a robust suite of security tools essential for organizations managing multi-cloud infrastructures. By integrating cloud accounts and automating workflows, it supports AWS, Azure, and GCP, offering comprehensive vulnerability management and zero-day detection. The platform's user-friendly design, combined with its extensive risk management and unified threat assessment capabilities, enables organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities effectively. TruRisk Insights provides clear insights on cyber risks, while the automation options streamline patch management and scanning processes. API integration across IaaS and SaaS environments further enhances resource allocation efficiency and saves time, addressing misconfigurations across cloud environments.

What are the most important features of Qualys TotalCloud?

Accurate Vulnerability Reports: Delivers precise and actionable insights for risk mitigation.
Zero-Day Detection: Identifies and addresses zero-day vulnerabilities proactively.
Unified Threat Assessment: Offers comprehensive evaluation of threats across the environment.
Extensive Risk Management: Manages risks effectively with advanced insights and prioritization.
Continuous Monitoring: Provides non-stop surveillance for vulnerabilities and threats.
Cloud-Native Automation: Streamlines processes and reduces manual efforts using automation.
FlexScan for Internet-Facing VMs: Scans external VMs efficiently to detect vulnerabilities.
Dashboard Risk Visualization: Clear visualization helps prioritize vulnerabilities.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Security Posture: Enhances threat detection and response across clouds.
Time Savings: Automation reduces time spent on manual vulnerability management.
Resource Efficiency: Better allocation of resources through streamlined workflows.
Enhanced Risk Prioritization: Focus on critical vulnerabilities for effective mitigation.
Integrated Cloud Accounts: Facilitates seamless cloud management and security.

Qualys TotalCloud is deployed in sectors needing rigorous vulnerability management, such as finance and healthcare. Companies utilize it to secure multi-cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and GCP, focus on compliance, and integrate security into CI/CD pipelines to detect and remedy threats pre-deployment.

Qualys

Sysdig Secure offers comprehensive threat detection and vulnerability scanning, integrating seamlessly with platforms like Kubernetes and cloud providers. It enhances compliance monitoring while prioritizing risks to improve security posture.

Sysdig Secure is designed for runtime security across containerized environments and cloud platforms. It integrates with tools like Falco for effective threat detection and extensive compliance monitoring. Users benefit from its friendly interface and visibility improvements, aiding in reducing alerts and managing vulnerabilities. Integrations with Kubernetes and Terraform enhance its flexibility, providing wide-ranging applicability and cloud support. There's a need to improve dashboard simplicity and enrich reporting capabilities. The tool should better handle Kubernetes audit events and increase API accessibility across more platforms. Users also seek advancements in its scalability, speed, and customer support in specific regions.

What are Sysdig Secure's key features?

Runtime Security: Monitors and protects containerized and cloud environments in real time.
Falco Integration: Enhances threat detection with Falco's powerful rules engine.
Threat Detection: Identifies and alerts on suspicious activities and security threats.
Vulnerability Scanning: Assesses applications and infrastructure for potential vulnerabilities.

What benefits should users expect from Sysdig Secure?

Enhanced Security Posture: Comprehensive threat visibility and rapid response capabilities.
Improved Efficiency: Reduced alert fatigue by prioritizing critical vulnerabilities.
Compliance Support: Streamlined processes for meeting security standards and regulations.
Cloud Integration: Seamless compatibility with cloud providers like AWS and GCP.

Industries benefit by employing Sysdig Secure for managing runtime workloads and ensuring compliance within cloud environments. Its effectiveness in monitoring clusters on AWS, GCP, and securing CI/CD pipelines makes it essential for companies optimizing their cloud and container security strategies.

Sysdig

XM Cyber quantifies risk for different organizational levels, enhances patching by targeting choke points, and offers precise attack simulations, optimizing management time and vulnerability resolutions.

XM Cyber empowers organizations to identify significant risks by focusing on choke points and improving patching strategies. The platform excels in providing reliable and precise simulations, informing users about critical vulnerabilities without false positives. It enhances vulnerability management and internal reconnaissance, reducing loss exposure while supporting attack surface management. Users seek improved mobile exposure capabilities and IBM i specific solutions along with better visualization and AI integration.

What are the key features of XM Cyber?

Risk Quantification: Provides insights for both executive and technical levels.
Focused Patching: Targets choke points for enhanced efficiency.
Attack Simulation: Offers reliable, precise simulations without false positives.
Choke Point Analysis: Prioritizes significant vulnerabilities to focus remediation efforts.
Internal Reconnaissance Enhancement: Reduces loss exposure and optimizes security strategies.

What benefits should users look for?

Effective Risk Management: Decreases exposure by targeting critical risks.
Reduced Management Time: Saves time by honing in on essential vulnerabilities.
Improved Vulnerability Management: Supports patching strategies through smart prioritization.
Enhanced IT Resource Utilization: Informs users on threat management decisions.

XM Cyber is deployed to manage risks in internet-exposed assets and hybrid cloud environments. Its implementation allows organizations to optimize IT resources by identifying vulnerabilities in critical attack paths, thus enhancing efficiency and supporting robust security strategies across industries.

XM Cyber

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

SAP Concur, Goldman Sachs, Worldpay, Experian, BigCommerce, Arkose Labs, Calendly, Noteable, Bloomreach. More here: https://sysdig.com/customers/

Hamburg Port Authority, Plymouth Rock Corporation

Buyer's Guide

Sysdig Secure vs. XM Cyber

August 2026

Free Report: Sysdig Secure vs. XM Cyber

Find out what your peers are saying about Sysdig Secure vs. XM Cyber and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Sysdig Secure vs. XM Cyber report.

See our list of best Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) vendors.

We monitor all Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.