The Cyber Sizzler

The only newsletter that helps professionals get 2% better every day.

Hey hey!

I hope everyone had a great day! It was sunny here, which is something to call out because for those that don’t know west Michigan, it’s cloudy as hell. Oh, and we found out that the ice storm punched a hole in our roof. Yay…

Today we break down the messaging and branding of a freshly minted Series A threat intel company and give some advice to someone that needed it.

Oh, and I’m working on something big!

Ok..just a little teaser. It has to do with this viral post in r/cybersecurity and I …I can’t…I said to much. But think you’re going to like it.

ON DECK FOR TODAY

• Insights To Building A Strong Foundation For A Successful Career

• SOCRadar grabbed $5M from 212

• Jala-Meme-Ños: 🌶️ 🤣

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A Redditor in the IT field was having a hard time breaking into the security industry. He was doing the right things, focusing on the wrong things, and contemplated giving up all together.

Below is my response to him, with advice that’s universal. You can read the original question here and some follow-up advice about breaking out of your shell as an introvert little further down. Enjoy.

Insights To Building A Strong Foundation For A Successful Career

You're on a good path, but take a minute and think about a few other things.

If you're looking to break into any industry, it's important to focus on building a strong foundation of knowledge and skills. You already have 5 years of experience configuring routers and switches, which is a hell of a lot more experience than the people coming out of a bootcamp or just studying in college without putting hands to keyboards (I'm not knocking you college grads, but experience is critical).

Certifications are important, but they are not the only factor when it comes to getting hired. Employers want to see that you have the knowledge and skills to back up that freshly printed paper in your hand in a real-world setting. This means gaining practical experience, tinkering with your own lab, and building a portfolio that showcases your skills.

• Start posting on Medium articles that follow your progress.

• Use TikTok to teach others what you just learned.

• Post Twitter threads that solve problems that you just discovered.

Remember, everything that you're learning now can be taught to someone who's just behind you.

The Power Of Networking: Why Building A Strong Network Is Important

Networking is an essential part of any industry, and the cybersecurity industry is no exception.

• Join local groups.

• Attend security events.

• Join professional organizations.

The goal is to make connections with like-minded professionals. And not only will you learn great stuff at these events, your connections can help you learn about new opportunities. Plus, you'll likely make new friends and have someone to grab a beer or pop with (Hey, I'm in Michigan and we don't say soda...we call it pop).

Remember, networking isn't just about what others can do for you, it's about building meaningful relationships. Make an effort to connect with others in a genuine way, and you'll find that your network will grow naturally.

Keep giving and giving and giving. If you keep giving without expectations, it will pay off.

Achieving Your Goals: The Importance of Persistence and Perseverance

Whether your goal is to become a pentester or to land your first cybersecurity job or getting a sales job selling appliances, it's important to stay focused and be persistent.

Success is a journey, not a destination, and setbacks and rejections are a natural part of the journey.

Nobody that has ever achieved true success has done it without plenty of failure.

The list could go on and on, but that's not the point.

Stay focused on your goals, keep learning and growing in your craft, and don't give up in the face of adversity. Every setback is an opportunity to learn and improve, so embrace the challenges and keep pushing forward.

The Truth About Success: Why It's a Journey, Not a Destination

The idea of success as a destination is a common misconception.

Your success in breaking into the cybersecurity industry is not a place you arrive at, but a journey you undertake. It's a process of learning, growing, and improving over time.

It's building meaningful relationships and honing your craft over years.

Instead of focusing solely on the end result, focus on the journey itself. Embrace the challenges, celebrate the small victories, and keep pushing forward towards your goals.

Remember, every step you take toward your goals is a step in the direction of success.

🌶️

SOCRadar

SOCRadar

• RAISED: $5M (Series A)

• DATE: March 08, 2023

• LED BY: 212

• CEO: Huzeyfe Önal

• WHAT: Threat Intel

Our Take

The threat intelligence industry has become increasingly important in recent years as the volume and complexity of cyber threats have continued to grow. Big players have dominated the space, but there always seems to be room for more.

SOCRadar grabbed $5M from 212, a Turkish based VC, and is trying to carve out their space in the market. As usual, we’ll look at their messaging and try to figure out what they do.

Cookie Pop-ups Turn Me Into A Monster

I hate to bring this up first, but it’s literally the first thing you’re presented with.

I really don’t like cookie pop-ups.

I really really don’t like them. And ones that dim the screen and appear to not be able to do anything but approve of them feels shady. You can click away, but the pop-up comes back on each page. A better implementation would be to allow users to just pick essential cookies or better yet, allow them to disable them all together.

One more thing, I want to clear something up before we move on. The security industry, and software more broadly, has messaging problems. “It’s about time to do more with less” could very well be an advertisement for dish soap or a Weight Watchers, but it’s the first thing you’re presented with on Anomali’s site.

Ok, moving on.

Extended Threat Intelligence
We empower you to know the unknowns.

SOCRadar’s initial messaging is clear, but then it gets a little muddy. 

I expect that extended threat intelligence would provide something more than just threat intel, but I can’t tell what it is. Is it human powered? Does it pull intel from multiple platforms? Do I get a team of agents in the field pulling in human intelligence from Russians? How are you empowering me to know unknowns?

The picture the team chose helps a little. There’s a few logos I can make out, LinkedIn and Twitter, so I’m assuming the intel will be enriched with that data somehow.

Now We’re Getting Somewhere: ASM - TIP - DRP

We finally know what we’re getting, Attack Surface Management, Threat Intelligence Platform, and Digital Risk Protection. SOCRadar is clearly in the same market as the leaders in the space.

It appears that SOCRadar separates their products out, and the site bizarrely hides the plans out under a small menu item at the bottom of the Products menu. We’re still not sure get the access to each product per plan or not.

SOCRadar has more than a handful of free tools and cool links to look at. Dark web, threat reports, campaign monitoring, account breaches all beg to be clicked.

We love free tools, but that part of the site feels completely different.

4 Suggestions Of What To Spend Some Of That $5M On.

1. Clarify messaging — SOCRadar does a great job telling potential customers what product space they’re in, but need to tighten up the delivery. Use Valtix as a guide, it’s crisp and crystal clear, “Multicloud Security In 5 Minutes.”

2. Consolidate branding — Take the new messaging and consolidate the brand feel. Each page should feel like an extension of the home page.

3. Clean-up menu items — All of the pieces are there, Products, Solutions, etc., but the menu feels disorganized. Small changes like moving all the different resources, under the resources menu would make a big difference in how the site flows.

And please for the love of god, get rid of those cookie pop-ups.

🌶️

Jala-meme-ños

🌶️ 🤣

TALL GLASS OF MILK

Time to cool down with a tall glass of milk. Thanks for reading! We'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or feedback. Keep crushing it!

AFTERBURN

#thankful

If you made it this far could you help us out? 

If think a buddy would like this, could you share it with them? We’re grass-rooting this thing and would love extra help spreading the word.

🌶️ 🙌