Cybersecurity Industry Is Healthy
Thoughts on BlackHat 2023
I was asked several times this past week in Vegas what I thought the prospects were for the cybersecurity industry. Big layoffs like the 470 person RIF at Rapid7, down-rounds in funding, a few fire-sales at vendors that had run out of runway, all contribute to a feeling of uncertainty.
My take-away from the week: The industry is alive and well. I had not been to BlackHat since 2019 when the industry was booming. Total investments that year came to a record $7 billion. It was the beginning of a remarkable runup to 2021 with $10.7 billion, and 2022 with $26 billion. So far this year there has been $6.8 billion invested in cybersecurity companies. On track to hit $11 billion.
Everyone comes away with their own perspective of BlackHat because you can only meet with so many people, have so many steak dinners, and go to so many parties in the few short days you are there. My perspective was colored by walking the show floor, talking to people who came to Cymulate’s booth to get a signed copy of Security Yearbook 2023, going to meetings in the suites at Mandalay Bay, and bumping into old friends. As usual I did not attend a single presentation so cannot report on the quality of the pitches or content.
There were a lot of announcements just before and during BlackHat. I already mentioned the Rapid7 RIF which was met with sympathy instead of the criticism that vendors recieved for announcing layoffs *after* RSAC 2023. It never looks good to engage in lavish spending before firing people.
Sweet Security came out of stealth with an announcement of $12 million in funding for this cloud runtime security company.
Rubrik, the data backup and recovery company, fulfilled their data security posture management aspirations by acquiring Laminar.
Horizon3.ai took in $40 million in its C round.
The week before BlackHat Francisco Partners announced a deal to take Blancco Technology Group private. I was at Blancco, the data erasure company, for a short while soon after it went public.
And the big news of the week: Check Point Software acquired SASE vendor Perimeter 81 for $490 million.
For IT-Harvest it was a great week, the first BH we had attended in force with three of us working the show floor. I signed 100 copies of Security Yearbook 2023 in the Cymulate booth. We met with current customers that were over the top in their enthusiam for our platform. And while the show was going on we inked a deal with a new data source that is going to double the number of data points we can search and filter on. If you are ready to become a subscriber reach our to Dennis Portney at dennis@it-harvest.com
Similar takeaway but you put it sooo nicely. I am sure the industry is going to grow this year... Even investors are optimistic. Exciting times, indeed.
I came away with a similar impression. The market is still growing and funding is happening, but startups need a product, the bar is higher, and growth will be more measured.
Much of the VC oxygen has been consumed by AI, but this might be a good thing for the stability of the security market.