NCX Group Security

Last Sunday, Microsoft made everyone patch the same thing twice. Groundhog Day, with patches. That same day. Three different bills: the owner running a company, the owner selling one, the buyer across the table. The fix is the basics. Read on LinkedIn: f.mtr.cool/bru7luguuz

Bregal Milestone just took a majority stake in Nethive, backing its acquisition of JoyComm. PE keeps consolidating SME cyber services because capital follows firms that can prove diligence and remediation capacity at scale. Can you prove your next target's?  See the deal: f.mtr.cool/bhch97dyp9

Attackers move in hours; most of us patch in weeks. I wrote about why proving the basics beats more tools. If you own, run, buy, or sell a business, you'll want to learn more about this, and why the next 18 months will decide who stays insurable, financeable, and sellable.  Read "The Man Who Owns the Storm Cellar Just Told Us to Take Cover": f.mtr.cool/o77bep8rdc

If you've built a business and are thinking about what comes next, this one's for you. I got fired three times. Started NCX Group with $3,000. What I learned shapes how we protect sell-side owners today. Your story is your valuation. Protect it.  Tune in to the episode on the Bite Size Security podcast: Fired Three Times: The Story Behind 25 Years of NCX Group f.mtr.cool/lnz203rttq

Ransomware took a 250-person firm down for 40 days. The breach isn't the real number. Third-party risk, downtime, and cyber posture decide your deal. Bill Forster the Founder of CEO Zones and I break down what's actually at stake. Watch the short: f.mtr.cool/26rccacq4i

IonQ's $1.3B all-stock bet on Elisity comes with no published diligence findings. No valuation methodology. Just a number. Most people read this as a technology story. I read it as a diligence story. Elisity sells Zero Trust security. Who independently validated its own posture before close? The seller's risk becomes your risk at close. Price it, or inherit it. f.mtr.cool/767snvixhp

Last year, I sat through a day-long seminar on selling a business under a pseudonym. I didn't want anyone to know I was there. In fairness, going undercover isn't unusual for me. Social engineering- testing whether a friendly stranger can talk their way past the front desk- is a regular part of what we do. I didn't go full Fletch, but I'll admit I was tempted. :-) The seminar was put on by a large M&A firm that handles more than 300 middle-market transactions a year. Eight hours on selling your business. Not one word about cyber risk. Allianz ranks cyber incidents as the number one business risk in the world, for companies of every size. In eight hours, it never came up. That day is when we started formalizing our transaction work at NCX Group. I'm not selling. Nothing is changing at NCX. But I'm a business owner, and like almost everyone who starts a business, I've thought about it. You may have, too. You may not have told anyone yet. If you've owned your business long enough, you've led it through 9/11, the Great Recession, and the pandemic. You've seen just about everything. Now there's one more thing to get right: the largest transaction of your life. Before you tell anyone, ask yourself one question: who on your team is independently evaluating cyber as a business risk, not just an IT issue? I wrote about where to start. Thinking About Selling Your Business? Where to Start Before You Tell Anyone linkedin.com/pulse/thinking-… via @LinkedIn

I got fired the day my son was born. Two more terminations later, I started NCX Group with about $3,000 and a wife who believed in me. As we head into year 25, here’s the story I’ve hesitated to tell. Without her, this story never happens. 25 Years of NCX Group: It Started With Getting Fired linkedin.com/pulse/25-years-… via @LinkedIn