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Hello, cybersecurity enthusiasts! Brian Ahern, CEO of CyberMaxx, here with another roundup of LinkedIn content.
Over the last week, I’ve shared my thoughts on various cybersecurity, finance, and business topics to support your journey to success. To make it easy for our valued customers, partners, and other stakeholders, we’ve provided all those insights in one educational blog post.
So, without further ado, here’s a summary of each post, plus links to access the full LinkedIn article.
MDR Vendors Significantly Undermining Customers
In a strongly pointed post on July 15th, I call out MDR vendors. I have concerns that many providers are limiting investigations and threat intelligence in their scope of work for new customers. And as the last line of defense against cyber threats, they should not impose such limits.
I highlight why setting these service limits is a bad idea. For example, offering investigation and threat intelligence activity provides more comprehensive threat coverage and lets you handle incident response activity more effectively. It also helps build client trust and satisfaction, meet regulatory compliance obligations, and stay proactive in threat hunting. Finally, there’s cost vs. risk.
The cost savings of limiting investigation and threat intelligence services don’t outweigh the cost of a breach.
Check out the full LinkedIn article here.
Leverage Investing – Benefits & Risks
Pivoting into a finance topic in a July 16th post, I discuss leverage investing or leveraged buyouts (LBOs). This approach uses borrowed capital to buy a company rather than investing with current funds. I then point out circumstances where leveraging is a better approach than equity investing.
For instance, you can borrow at a low cost with low interest rates. And if the market conditions are right, leveraging can magnify gains or exploit price differentials and arbitrage opportunities. You can also get tax benefits and enhance your total investment returns via LBOs. Furthermore, leveraging is more capital efficient, lets you hedge against inflation, and provides strategic growth opportunities for the company.
While leveraging has its advantages, I also pointed out the risks of LBOs. For example, while it can amplify gains, it can also magnify losses. Debt also comes with service needs requiring you to pay hefty interest costs. Market volatility can also lead to higher risk and margin calls. Finally, relying on borrowed capital leads to credit risk exposure.
Check out the full LinkedIn article here.
What You Should Know About Employee Equity
In my July 17th post, I discussed employee equity as a great way to attract, retain, and motivate employees. I then briefly summarized the two most common forms of employee equity: Stock options and restricted stock units (RSUs).
With stock options, employees can purchase shares at a predetermined price and exercise their options after the vesting period. These equity programs have the potential for high returns, can motivate performance, and come with favorable tax advantages. The downside: The stock is worthless if the price doesn’t increase above the exercise price. There’s also an upfront cost to the employee to buy shares. Plus, navigating the tax implications and how to exercise options can be challenging.
As for RSUs, they are a promise to deliver stock after performance or employment milestones. These automatically convert to shares without any action by the employee and include a vesting period to exercise the options. Employees get guaranteed value with RSUs since they don’t need to buy any shares and get taxed simply as ordinary income when they vest their shares. One drawback, however, is immediate taxation since RSUs are taxed as ordinary income. There’s also less upside because the shares are guaranteed value, which can dilute the value of existing outstanding shares.
Check out the full LinkedIn article here.
Cybersecurity Analogized to Life Insurance
In my July 18th analysis, I describe cybersecurity as an analogy to life insurance. Both are proactive risk management measures that serve similar objectives. Here’s how:
- They’re protection against catadioptric events and devastating losses
- They give you peace of mind
- They enable long-term financial stability
- They often are tied to a compliance requirement and help build trust
- They ensure continuity and resilience
- They can maintain a reputation and foster (brand or family) loyalty
- They’re cost-effective risk management solutions
Check out the complete analogy in my full LinkedIn article here.
Criticality of Researching Ransomware Gangs
In my July 19th post, I first highlighted how security research is a core part of CyberMaxx and its MDR service. It directly supports our “Offense Fuels Defense” strategy and helps us provide more reliable security services.
I then dive into why we invest so heavily in tracking and analyzing the activity of ransomware gangs:
- It helps prevent and mitigate against future cyber attacks
- Provides intelligence for security teams to up defenses and patch vulnerabilities
- Allows law enforcement to disrupt criminal activities
- Holds groups responsible and accountable for ransomware attacks
- Provides insights for information sharing and collaboration
- It helps reduce the economic impact of cyber attacks
- Supports R&D and enhancement of cyber defense technologies
Check out the full LinkedIn article here.