TYSONS, Va., March 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CodeHunter today announced Zero Trust for Code, an emerging new cybersecurity category that determines whether software should be trusted to execute based on behavioral intent analysis performed before execution. The company also announced that cybersecurity industry veteran Ken Ammon has been appointed chief executive officer.
Ammon succeeds Chris O’Ferrell, who becomes chief technology officer. Arion Lawrence, previously CTO, will serve as chief scientist, Laura Riviere, formerly CRO is now COO, and Rick Rose joins the company as chief financial officer.
The announcement comes as security leaders confront a rapidly changing threat environment shaped by automation and AI-generated malware. Traditional security approaches based on signatures, static inspection, and reputation scoring are struggling to keep pace with polymorphic threats that constantly change their appearance to evade detection.
At the same time, enterprises now operate dozens of security tools that generate massive volumes of alerts, far more than human analysts can manually investigate.
Zero Trust for Code extends the principles of zero-trust security to software artifacts themselves. Rather than assuming software is safe based on origin, signatures, or scanning results, the approach evaluates the behavior and intent of code before execution, determining what actions it is capable of performing and whether that behavior complies with enterprise policy.
By answering the question “What can this code do?” before software runs, organizations can automatically triage security alerts, reduce manual investigation, and prevent malicious artifacts from executing in the first place.
“Security teams are overwhelmed by alerts while attackers are increasingly using AI to generate software that constantly changes its form to evade detection," said Ken Ammon, CEO of CodeHunter. “Zero Trust for Code shifts the focus from what code looks like to what it can actually do. That allows organizations to make fast, deterministic trust decisions and dramatically reduce the amount of manual analysis required to keep their environments secure.”
CodeHunter’s approach combines pre-execution behavioral analysis with automated policy enforcement to determine whether software should be allowed to execute, blocked, quarantined, or reviewed. The result is both malware prevention and automated alert triage, enabling organizations to consolidate security tools and reduce the operational burden on security teams.
The company is focused on organizations in regulated industries, including financial services, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure, where software integrity, auditability, and operational resilience are critical requirements.
“Enterprises need a way to stop malicious software earlier while also reducing the operational load and cost of security,” said Chris O’Ferrell, now CTO. “By evaluating code behavior before execution, Zero Trust for Code enables organizations to prevent threats and dramatically reduce the number of alerts that require human review.”
Proven Cybersecurity Leadership
Ammon brings more than three decades of cybersecurity leadership experience to CodeHunter and a track record of building companies that achieved successful exits.
He previously served as founder and chief strategy officer of OPAQ Networks, a cloud-delivered network security company acquired by Fortinet, and as chief strategy officer of Xceedium, a privileged access management company acquired by CA Technologies. Earlier in his career, Ammon founded NetSec, a managed security services provider that was acquired by MCI/Verizon Business, helping pioneer the managed security services industry.
Rose, the company’s new CFO, previously held senior financial leadership roles at cybersecurity companies including OPAQ Networks and Xceedium, where he led financing efforts and helped oversee the company’s acquisition by CA Technologies.
About CodeHunter
CodeHunter provides Zero Trust for Code, enabling organizations to determine whether software should be trusted before it executes. Founded in 2021, with roots in U.S. government research labs, CodeHunter analyzes the behavior and intent of software artifacts prior to execution. This helps enterprises prevent malicious code from running, reduce alert overload, and automate security decisions across development pipelines, endpoints, and enterprise environments. The company focuses on organizations in regulated industries that require high assurance, operational resilience, and auditable security controls. For more information, visit www.codehunter.com.
Media Contact
Marc Gendron
Marc Gendron PR for CodeHunter
marc@mgpr.net
+1 617 877 7480
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a1f451c9-8742-4731-8a30-69551c39c108
