The Cyber Why: What We Read This Week...
The Cyber Why: What We Read This Week...
... and why you should too! (11/18/2022)
Man what a crazy week it’s been. So many things happening I can’t even begin to share it all with you. I personally had a great time traveling to Washington DC to participate on a panel at the Cyber Marketing Conference 2022 event. I had the chance to meet a number of amazing cyber marketing folks and the take aways were pretty awesome. If you are in cyber marketing I highly recommend you join the society.
Sadly, due to being on the road for half of the week, I didn’t get a chance to send the newsletter out on Friday… so here it is, only one day late. Episode three of The Cyber Why: What We Read This Week is ready to be eye guzzled and content consumed! As a friendly reminder, please do us a favor and subscribe - it goes a long way to keep us motivated.
The Hunt for the Dark Web’s Biggest Kingpin, Part 4: Face to Face (Wired)
Chasing data through TOR endpoints using advanced blockchain analysis techniques that have never been disclosed. This story just keeps getting better and better. And then to have a random face to face encounter with the target nearly giving the entire sting away - I can’t WAIT to see this movie. If you haven’t read them yet, check out parts 1-3 and then go read this fourth installment in this amazing saga.
Tech Trends: The Cloud and Your Business Operations (The Reformed Analyst)
I recently had a lively discussion with Katie Teitler and Matt Alderman, my co-hosts on the Enterprise Security Weekly show, about the company HEY pulling completely out of the cloud. They bucked the popular trend of massive migration into the cloud and did so in a very public way - even going so far as to put out a blog post on the reasoning. In this article, Katie does a great write up on her views into the benefits and difficulties of the cloud including a bit of awesome history.
Sources: Palo Alto Networks is buying Cider Security for up to $300M (TechCrunch)
The main story here is that PAN bought Cider Security for $300M. Rumor has it that the acquisition was for $200M in cash and $100M in PAN stock. Rumor ALSO has it that Cider has under $5M ARR at the time of acquisition. This tells us that PAN is not afraid to continue its “go big” strategy with regards to acquisitions. The big question is how much of a “comp” does this set going forward for all of the zombie unicorns that are going to exist in the next 12 months - will exit even be an opportunity for them?
Hard Reset Or, How Not to Drive Your Company Off A Cliff (Sarah Guo)
What happens if you’re a start up and continue to burn hard with no improvements? Answer: You will die. The walking dead (or zombie companies) are starting to crop up. How do you avoid becoming one?
Sarah’s advice: Founders should avoid poisonous delusions like believing you can always raise more money or that you’re already running a lean.
Sounds like a simple thing to do but extremely difficult to do in practice — especially if you’ve had those rose colored tech glasses on for too long. In this article the author dispels some widespread delusions that are going around in tech and how to course correct while you can. Potentially fatal decisions aren’t pretty and neither are the steps to handle them but the article is honest and worth a read for any founder.
Amazon begins layoffs as economic woes mount (TechCrunch)
Earlier in the week, it was reported that Amazon had plans to layoff about 10,000 of their workforce. And then by Thursday, it had been officially confirmed by their current CEO Andy Jassy. The layoffs at Amazon reflect the continued turbulence facing the tech industry. Is the economy headed towards a recession? It’s likely. And the bigger players are just trying to get ahead while they can.
Tech Industry Layoffs Are Accelerating. What Does That Mean? (TechCrunch)
I opened this article to get a general idea of what the author believed the outcome of the tech downturn and layoffs were going to be. As I read, I noticed that the scrollbar was a tiny little blip. I began to read and once I got to the bottom of the first couple of screens of text, I found out why they scrollbar was so tiny. There is a layoff tracker at the bottom of the page that goes on and on and on… Check out this insane list of companies that have done RIFs in 2022. I’m crossing my fingers that we get a recovery early in 2023.
Elon Musk lays out options for remaining Twitter employees: click ‘yes’ or you’re done (The Verge)
The Elon-Twitter saga continues with an ultimatum via a Google form. In classic Elon style, he made it known to his remaining workforce that if they stay and build Twitter 2.0 — they’re signing onto a culture of “long hours at high intensity”. Click “yes” to stay. That’s a great pitch, right? Well, here’s how it’s going: according to Kylie Robison’s tweet, roughly 75% of the (remaining) workforce — had not clicked yes. This doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence and is further exacerbated by the trending #RIPTwitter and #GoodByeTwitter hashtags. Although Twitter restructuring will be completed at the end of the week — I’m not sure if there were many winners. And damn, that’s a whole lot of severance payouts.
It’s been a rough week for many in tech. In an attempt to lighten the mood, we figured that we’d end the week on a high note and some humor.
First of all, Rainn Wilson announced his name change via a tweet and has been unsuccessful in changing his Twitter handle to his new chosen name because “P.S. THEY WON’T LET ME CHANGE MY NAME BECAUSE, ELON!”. Has he not noticed the trending #RIPTwitter and #GoodByeTwitter hashtags? I think Elon and team are a little busy at the moment.
If you’ve made it this far you either found our musings at least semi-entertaining OR you enjoy pain and kept going regardless. No matter how you made it this far you should know that we appreciate you. Please do us a solid and share The Cyber Why with your friends. We would love to reach a bigger audience and our fans is how we’ll do it. Help us out and we’ll see you next week!