Tell NY Dispatch: Cyber is Having a Moment
Hello! Anyone even remotely involved in cybersecurity has probably felt the same thing over the past few months: endless noise, not enough differentiation, and fewer stories managing to break through into the mainstream news cycle. August felt different. A string of notable stories cut through, from founder profiles and headline-making incidents to major trade shows and broader industry developments. Not to toot our own horn, but we were booked and busy. Here’s what we saw - and what we learned.
Anatomy of a Profile
In-depth profiles have become a bit of a rarity in traditional media these days. And when they do happen, they’re a different kind of beast: the amount of information that goes into a single story, the number of interviews and people involved, and the caliber of voices needed to bring it to life all happen at a much bigger scale.
We’ve worked on plenty of them before, and when we started working on Fortune’s profile of Armis CEO Yevgeny Dibrov, the process itself was somewhat familiar: thinking through the pitch, finding the right reporter, and figuring out the different components of a potential story. Profiles usually come together over months: an interview here, a dinner there, tagging along to a meeting, maybe something fun in between. This time, scheduling gave us less than 24 hours. And when Yevgeny’s flight to New York was canceled, even getting him there required a last-minute private plane.
So, we had one day. We decided to make every hour count; we moved between some of the biggest HQs in the city, packed in interviews and meetings, but we still needed something that would show the person behind the founder. Yevgeny loves basketball, so naturally, we rented an entire basketball court and sent him and the reporter in to play while they talked. We even got an NBA player who is a close friend as another person to be interviewed for the piece. It was funny, slightly chaotic, but completely memorable.
If we had one learning to share, it is probably how a profile becomes much more interesting when you give the reporter ways to understand the person beyond the story they would tell about themselves. That means thinking carefully about who else could help bring that story to life, including people who may not be the most obvious choices at first. No idea is too weird or too far-fetched to consider. Sometimes an unexpected source or setting can reveal a side of someone that wouldn’t come through in a standard interview.
👉 Read it here
If You Read One Thing
The past few weeks have seen a wave of AI-driven cyber incidents, raising new questions about what comes next for AI security. In response, Dan Lahav, Founder and CEO of Irregular, published a new essay with Irregular exploring what these incidents mean and where AI security goes from here.
In “The End-State Fallacy: Where Is AI Security Headed?”, Dan argues that while AI could ultimately make cybersecurity stronger, the road there may favor attackers first.
As we were thinking about what actually makes a manifesto work, we listened to Lulu Cheng Meservey’s interview on the Founders Podcast, where she talks about the two things a good manifesto needs to do: give the reader a crystal-clear understanding of where things stand, and leave them feeling like they need to do something about it. Dan’s essay does both.
His argument is that while AI could ultimately make cybersecurity stronger, the next few years may favor attackers first. And the speed of change makes the case hard to ignore: in February, no AI model could crack a particular security challenge. By April, the best could occasionally do it for around $2,000. By June, several could do it reliably for roughly $20.
It’s not a short read, but it’s one of the most worthwhile things we’ve read on where AI security is actually heading and, more importantly, what needs to happen next.
At Black Hat, Booth is Your Ego Boost
Black Hat, as most of you know, is an annual conference that brings together thousands of cybersecurity companies, customers, investors, reporters, and industry leaders in one place, which means there’s a huge opportunity to stand out and have a little fun doing it. It’s also very crowded, with companies fighting for the same few seconds of attention. That makes doing something a little different almost a necessity.
Oak, for example, turned its booth into an actual forest, creating something that immediately looked and felt different from everything around it. Vega Security threw a party at the booth with a DJ for one of the days, paired with visuals that were genuinely next-level and impossible to miss. Both stood out because they gave people a reason to stop, take a photo, hang around, or see what was happening. Memorable and practical beats extravagant.
But, and this is an important one: it’s easy to stay inside the box, or in this case, the booth, and think about how to be creative within the usual conference framework. After hours inside a packed convention hall, though, most people are looking for a reason to get out and do something more interesting. That’s where physical activations can really work: getting customers and prospects out of meeting rooms and into an experience that’s actually fun, while giving them a completely different way to engage with the brand.
Daylight Security did this particularly well with its “CISO Genie.” Instead of asking people to remember another booth number, they offered security leaders a concierge service throughout Black Hat that could help with everything from transportation and coffee to dinner reservations, quiet rooms, and even spa treatments. The idea played directly into what everyone at Black Hat is experiencing: 20,000+ people, packed schedules, and the basic logistics of getting through the week becoming a headache. JPMorgan took a different route and brought people together around a car race. These activities can take more work, but they also create the kinds of experiences people are much more likely to remember after everyone has left Vegas.