Black Hat 2019 was it worth going all the way to Vegas for?

 

When I booked Black Hat about 5 months ago, I was dreaming of the hot weather, great food, lovely hotels, meeting my clients and, of course, looking for interesting new ones. As the weeks grew nearer I was getting more and more excited, especially as both my daughters asked if they could come with us. The youngest just turned 21 which meant party time for them, but in exchange they had to promise they’d do some work for us and help carry out surveys on our clients’ booths.

As I got off the plane and was hit with 110 degree Fahrenheit heat (that’s 40C for all those below the age of 30), I saw a lot of men dressed in black hoodies, some with kilts on, others with skirts, I remembered what I had let myself in for – a hackers convention during August in Vegas.

Now in the whole week I was there, I didn’t see any nature, not a bird in the sky, a real tree, not the lovely sound a of wasp or bumble bee buzz pass me. Oh boy did I miss the rain, the green of the countryside, the fresh suburban air and normality. There was incessant noise all week! It was relentless – even sitting by the pool I had to endure crazy people lathering up, with a huge oversized cocktails in their hands, getting pissed at 10am and screaming at the top of their voices overshadowed by huge billboards advertising massive portions of food. The weird temperature changes didn’t help me either, especially being a menopausal women, walking around air-conditioned rooms then outside into boiling hot unbearable blasts of heat, back into into freezing cold Ubers and then back into freezing cold foyers.

It’s exhausting, demanding and very hard work! The upside was I had lots of amazing meetings with a number of my clients which were hugely valuable – there is definitely nothing like meeting people face to face, brainstorming, learning what’s happening and getting up to speed over a lovely breakfast, lunch or dinner and a tumbler of G&T which, if you know me, I’m very partial to after 6pm.

Then there were all the prospective client meetings I had – which would never have happened if I hadn’t actually been at Black Hat. It’s now near on impossible to try and phone prospective clients up or even have an email responded to these days. There’s nothing like doing your homework before you go to a trade show and approach the clients who you really want to work with. I definitely came away with some fantastic leads for not only doing PR in the UK but in the US too and, as Eskenzi does far more than just PR, it was a perfect opportunity to let people know about our IT Security Analyst & CISO Forum, the Security Serous Unsung Heroes Awards, our Hacker Tales short story book and, of course, the European Cybersecurity Bloggers Awards that we now run with Brian Honan.

I also got a feel of how the industry is fairing up, which booths had great giveaways and what the general vibe is on the street. It’s reassuring to talk to people, not only the vendors but the visitors. Mostly people are very optimistic, there was a great atmosphere, the cybersecurity industry is buzzing, VC is flourishing, jobs are plentiful, business is good and the money is still flowing freely.  Business was being done and one of my clients actually got in excess of 2000 leads.

We were also lucky to attend multiple parties. The best by far was the Rapid7 and Mimecast party, which must have had over 5000 people bumping and grinding in the Caesar’s Palace 5 roomed nightclub will all the drinks on the house – it was crazy and so much fun. My girls passed on that one, too many sweaty men they said – I think they regretted it when we got back!

All in all, if you can ignore the very strange people who frequent Vegas, the over-indulgent side of it and the fact that you’re kind of forced to be in a huge adult playground day and night, then it’s brilliant! I have to admit it was a great business trip and well worth the long -haul flight, even with the jet-lag! We picked up some great new work from our current clients, have some new clients on the horizon and most importantly met up with so many old friends that we would never have met and had fun with if it wasn’t for Black Hat.

Imperva gets bought for $2.1b! It’s a bittersweet feeling!

By Yvonne Eskenzi director and co-founder of Eskenzi PR

After nine years of working for Imperva, I couldn’t be happier or prouder that they’ve been bought by Thoma Bravo for $2.1 billion. 

It’s a little like having a baby and watching it grow up through childhood, go through the teen years and then leave home. We’ve been through so much together from finding their first client at Incapsula, to various acquisitions, an IPO and now the ultimate dream. It’s been a marriage made in heaven. and now we must say goodbye – leaving the whole Eskenzi team feeling a bit sad – but that’s just like being a proud parent – our job is done!

As is the Israeli way, Imperva have gone on to spawn so many other great companies over the years which we’ve been lucky to also be involved in. and we’ve also made so many wonderful friends too including the loveliest man of them all Amichai Shulman alongside Kim DeCarlis, Criss Marshall, Lisa Croel, Rob Rachwald, Tami Casey, Barry Shteiman, Marc Gaffan, Mark Kraynak,Morgan Saunders, Edgard Capdevielle Noa Bar-Yosef, Christine Royston, Diane Ashfield, Courtney Ostermann, Winifred Shum and Tim Matthews.

Good luck Imperva and Thoma Bravo on your journey together.

To find out more about how we helped Imperva on their journey, please contact yvonne@eskenzipr.com

 

Security Serious Week has come and gone – but what a success!

By Yvonne Eskenzi, co-founder and director of Eskenzi PR

Three years ago, I thought it would be a great idea to run a week totally dedicated to cyber-security awareness as part of European Cyber Security Awareness Month.  Since then, Security Serious Week has developed into a series of fun, entertaining, informative events that get the industry together and, at the same time, educate those that aren’t necessarily from our industry but want to learn how to become more security savvy.

 

This year, it kicked off on 1^st October with a flash mob in Trinity Square Gardens which had over 70 companies offering their one-liner tip on how to become more security savvy in 10 words or less.  Canon UK, who is a great supporter of the Week, printed each slogan on a huge canvas for each company to hold up as part of the flash mob. We had a whole wealth of supporters from Government departments such as the Department of Culture,  Media and Sport, ActionFraud and The Home Office through to Police constabularies from Bedfordshire to the City of London. Companies such as Publicis Groupe and Channel 4 attended with lawyers from Cordery and Cooley, as well as representatives from large cyber-security vendors from the very biggest to the very smallest.  Mimecast then kindly invited everyone to the pub for pizza where there was more pizza than we could ever have eaten in a week – so we all ended up eating it for days after; and let me tell you, heated up pizza in a frying pan is something else!!

 

What scares me is, like a mad woman, I then decided to hold our third Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards on Wednesday 3^rd, where we ended up having queues of people waiting to get into our “piss up in a brewery” party – with over 200 people attending.  Eskenzi does love to hold a party, especially if it means loads of wonderful food and drink; and this really was a party to be remembered. What’s more, everyone got to circulate, meet new contacts and do business at a very high level.  I’m a true believer that’s how business is done, over mini fish and chips, pork sausages and a gin and tonic.  Honestly, the real reason for holding these awards was in protest to all those horrid award ceremonies I’ve been subjected to over the years where I’ve had to pay exorbitant amounts to sit next to dreadfully boring people and clap unwillingly for vendors who have paid to win.  We all know what a farce they are, so the idea of these awards is to celebrate the very people who do the work at the coalface, not products but people who work tirelessly behind the scenes protecting our systems and workforce.

 

The awards were over in 30 minutes and (pretty self-deprecating), with a little heckling with wine or beer on tap so no one got bored. There is nothing more wonderful than presenting the winners and runner-ups with huge silver trophies (that they can keep) and watching them come onto the stage with great pride and joy!! Now that’s what these awards are all about. The winners’ names can be found at https://www.securityserious.com/unsung-heroes-awards/

 

As if two events aren’t enough to keep us busy during the week – we then decided to issue our Hacker Tales – Bedtime Stories – a series of short fictional stories to make your hair stand on end, to scare you into taking security seriously.  They’re like a wake-up call to do something about your own security with over a dozen short stories and helpful hints and tips at the end.  The book is free to download from https://www.securityserious.com/hacker-tales/.  If you would like to contribute to the next edition which will be coming out in January, then all you need to do is submit up to 1500 words on a scary scenario and make it riveting and exciting.  Send it to yvonne@eskenzipr.com

 

We’ll be doing Security Serious Week again next October and always looking for fun ideas to get the industry together, so if you have any just let me know or if you would like to sponsor the awards we’d be delighted to have you on board.

Want to get involved in our Security Serious Flashmob Photo and Picnic Fest in the Park to raise awareness of security?

On 1^st October we’re going to get the cyber-security community together to host a flashmob picnic fest in the park, in Trinity Square Gardens, by the Tower of London to make people aware of Security Serious Week and European Cyber-Security Awareness month.  The idea would be to get the security industry, CISOs, academics, lawyers and law enforcement to offer their one liner golden tips on what they believe you should do to be “security serious”! Our sponsor Canon will then blow it up onto a canvas alongside your logo, with the intention of creating a massive human collage for a photocall with the press.  It would take less than an hour and everyone would be rewarded with a little picnic bag – just like you used to enjoy as a kid.  It would not only be a great awareness event but a fun networking event.  If you’re keen to submit your one liner (no  more than 10 words) on what you think people should do to be more secure then submit it to beth@securityserious.com by 1^st September.  This is a totally free opportunity to get the industry together, no strings, no catches!

We will then have your tip blown up alongside your logo waiting for you in the park at 12.30 on 1^st October at Trinity Square Gardens, right beside Tower Hill Tube Station.

Please spread the word via #SecSeriousFest

InfoSec 2018 – Tips on getting the most PR out of it!

Ok, so you’ll be lucky if, this year, 30 good tier one press even come to Infosec. Gone are the days when 300+ would show up and cruise the show openly interviewing exhibitors to see what was new (and I’m sure that’s got nothing to do with the fact that we no longer do the PR!!).

Boy oh boy – if you want to get  interviews, you’re going to have to think long and hard about what it is you’ve got that’s going to make a hard working journalist want to see you, especially as it’s only humanly possible for them to see a maximum of 7 vendors per day. This year you’re going to have to think outside of the box and work harder and smarter than ever before to get PR from the show, and it may not even be from the press you rely on to get it. You’re going to have to be your very own content machine. Think like Graham Cluley, Carole Theriault, Ken Munro or Javvad Malik – these are all self styled security content kings & queens who inform us smartly with humour, intelligence and considered rhetoric.

It’s a new exciting world out there, where you no longer have to scratch your heads wondering how on earth are you going to entice the media at a show like infosec. You can make your own news by producing riveting, exciting, original commentary through a blog on what you see as new interesting products and solutions. Spend your three days at Infosec tweeting, blogging and videoing the unusual, quirky human interest stuff that’s going to resonate with people! Become your own PR machine and offer considered thoughtful opinion – the human side or your expert take on what’s emerging that’s new and worthwhile.

Here is our advice on how best to PR yourself at Infosec, based on 22 years’ experience of doing the PR for the show for hundreds of clients, plus the knowledge of the extended Eskenzi PR team who have spent the last 4 weeks on the phone to those very press attending Infosec this year!

If you have the following, Infosecurity will be a runaway success from a PR point of view!

Have you got some original research to release at this year’s show that will grab the attention of the press?

Have you got a topical take on a news related story? E.g. are you working on the first GDPR blunder?

Has your team discovered a new malware or breach?

Have you got a Guru or leading expert in town?

Do you have a new product that’s got something truly original that’s going to make a difference?

Have you got an unique spin on a new topic?

Is your speaking slot going to give some smart, original insight?

Do you have a product that’s not just threat intelligence?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then great; your PR is going to be awesome. If you answered no to all of the above, then you can still take advantage of being at the show by doing some of the following.

1. Press releases – there’s still a press office so put your news releases in there and visit it frequently to see which journalists are there that could be interested in your company.
2. You need to attract journalists’ attention in the press office, so put something bright and eye catching in there. How about giveaways? Do you have any bags, pens etc.? – journalists love freebies!
3. You still have a week to get people to your stand, so get blogging, send out email shots, mention Infosec at the bottom of your email signature.
4. Produce a good handout that people can read there and then.
5. Network and use the show to make new partnerships, use it for recruitment and to educate and impress new clients.
6. Make sure your stand has words that sum up eloquently what you do.
7. Get bright, smart, alert people to work your booth. Not tired old sales guys no longer hungry for leads.
8. Do not let anyone on your stand who is hungover, has smelly breath from the night before and doesn’t want to be there.
9. Think how you will stand out from the crowd. Giveaways, uniqueness, messaging, enthusiasm, desire to help?
10. What’s your objective? To scan every lead or focus on a few qualified leads? How will you filter them out?
11. Remember to follow them up immediately – don’t hang around!
12. Don’t waste time talking to the wrong people. Qualify them quickly and move on.
13. Can you use this opportunity to do some market research?
14. Can you do a survey to get original content for press releases or an opinion piece?
15. Do not allow your staff to talk to each other – they should be outwardly looking to catch every passing visitor.
16. Smile at everyone and ask people as they walk past your stand “ are you looking for a so and so solution then come on in – you’ve come to the right place!”
17. Make it easy for every visitor to feel comfortable to approach you.
18. Don’t overcrowd/clutter your stand.
19. Do not eat on your stand.
20. Have enough literature and plan to have back up if you run out
21. Wear comfy shoes
22. Take pictures and videos and make sure you use these after the show in whatever way you possible can as Content, Content, Content is the PR mantra that works!

GOOD LUCK!

Eskenzi PR is hiring!

It’s gone bonkers at Eskenzi PR since the New Year winning some awesome clients, selling out our IT Security Analyst & CISO Forum, being shortlisted for a UK Government award (I’m not allowed to say any more until it’s announced in April). So, we need to recruit for a wonderful, talented and brilliant account manager who can fit into our happy, dynamic and friendly agency!

We are looking for someone with:

• Proven PR experience
• Ambition and drive to progress
• Prior B2B or technology sector experience would be ideal
• A team player
• Self-starter with the ability to inspire juniors
• An interest in writing articles, blogs and press releases
• Experience in social media as well as traditional media
• Experience of developing and running impactful campaigns
• An interest in cyber security
• The ability and ambition to build strong productive relationships with clients and help them raise their profiles and grow their businesses.

Most…

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Why is Israel the cyber-security hub of the world? What I learnt this week from the Imperva Israeli press tour

Okay, so I’m seriously buzzing from the Imperva Israeli Press Tour. Inspirational, energetic, dynamic, humbling and creative are just a few of the adjectives that are swirling around my head when I think back to the trip. I have been surrounded by some of the most brilliant minds in the world – most of whom have come out of the 8200, the elite intelligence division of the Israeli army.

If you can imagine a city of wannapreneurs – a place where it feels like everyone has just jumped out of the starting gates and are in the race to get to the finishing line, and whoever gets their first wins the million-dollar prize money – and that’s not fiction, that’s reality!  Look at the cyber-security companies that have come out of Israel – Checkpoint, Imperva, Cyber-Ark, Trusteer, which was sold to IBM, Tufin, plus many have R&D offices in Israel such as Akamai, IBM Security, Raytheon and RSA.

What happens in Israel is what happens when you throw a stone in a pond and it creates a ripple effect, a chain reaction. For many of those privileged and talented enough to have worked at Imperva, they have gone onto start up their own brilliant innovative cyber-security companies, many of which have been backed by the original founders of Imperva, including the true greats Shlomo Kramer and Amichai Shulman, who have both helped to spawn many successful start-ups.

Amichai, who is definitely one of the loveliest and brightest men I know, took the time to take us down Rothschild Boulevard where all the start-up companies hang-out of the most beautiful restored Bauhaus buildings. Each compete to be funkier and more fun than the next and are jammed packed with eager start-ups bursting with yet another brilliant solution that will hopefully solve the latest cyber-security threat.  The start-ups sit side by side the venture capitalists and angel investors – who incubate, nurture, counsel and invest in the new guys on the block.  It’s what Amichai is now doing after his 15 years building Imperva, now one of the most successful companies in data security and DDoS protection.  He has begun to invest in many incredibly innovative and needed solutions, as well as mentoring and lecturing, which seems to be the way it goes in Israel.  The idea of collaboration and helping one another is key to why Israel is so successful in cyber-security – the older, successful generation go on to help and support the younger generation.

There is an eco-system in Israel where businesses believe in supporting each other. I was told that if you have a new product or idea you’ll never be turned away by a company such as a bank, retailer or pharmaceutical company – their doors are always open as they are happy to trial beta products. It is the Israeli way.

These guys also trust each other emphatically and use their network to build their businesses – most of the founders of the start-ups I met had served alongside each other in the elite 8200 intelligence division of the Israeli army for the super brilliant.  Because they’ve trusted and had each other’s backs in the army, they have grown up like brothers, so it’s natural to continue trusting and working with each other, developing products that they see a need for once they leave the Israeli army.  The same goes for some of the other incredible businesses I met from the OFEK division, which is the intelligence division of the Airforce.  Panorays,a company well worth watching, was one that totally impressed me as they perform automated third party security management – a booming and much needed requirement with GDPR looming.

The education system is very much geared towards encouraging kids to go into cyber-security, too.  I met a friend over dinner whose son at 14 had just started a boarding school that specialises in computing and cyber – can you imagine that here in the UK? He is obsessed with computing, coding and hacking, so now he can do it safely and responsibly in the confines of a centre of excellence.  From these sorts of schools of excellence, they all then are conscripted into the military for a minimum of two years, which is where – if they have the aptitude – they are picked for the 8200 intelligence unit.

Ingeniously, this whole system helps sort out any skills shortage problem they may have because they are encouraging the kids from a young age to consider cyber as their career choice.  Interestingly, it’s only after military service do they then go onto University, and even then they have multiple Universities of excellence for cyber-security for undergraduates to choose from such as Ben Gurion University, Be-er Sheba.

During the press tour, we had six journalists from The Times, the New Statesman, SC magazine, Dark Reading, TechTarget and Bloomberg and were privy to a lunchtime discussion about why Israel is a cyber-security hub. We heard from Ofer Schriber, YL Ventures; David Mimran, the CTO of Ben Gurion University, Be-er Sheba; Nir Lempert, CEO of MER Group and a Deputy Commander of the 8200 Unit; Matan Or-El from Panorays and Roi Yarom Head of Policy Planning for the Israeli National Cyber-Security Bureau – here we saw the real professionalism and passion, the inter-relationships and camaraderie.

From this meeting I learnt, too, that the Government has a huge part to play in promoting and nurturing cyber-security in Israel; they have numerous schemes and initiatives to develop this area, plus they send lots of companies of delegations around the world to form partnerships. In fact, another of our clients IRONSCALES were away for part of the week on a funded trip by the Government on a trade mission to Tokyo, where they returned delighted that they had actually closed real business and made some incredible partnerships.  Another very interesting and worthwhile lesson to learn from the Israelis!

Like the rest of us, they do have their fair share of the cyber-skills shortage, but nothing like we see here in the UK or the US. The issue was more that everyone had a burning desire to stay only for a few years at a start-up and then be the founder of the next cyber-security start-up – so the same old retention issue that we’re all so used to seeing on our own turf.

The other remarkable difference about why I think Israeli companies do so well is the fact that everything is so close. Literally, where we spent most of our week, you could walk to every meeting, pop in to the folks next door, meet in one of the many coffee shops or cute, boho chic bars to catch up. Actually, in Israel I’m beginning to think everyone knows everyone else. Each time I mentioned someone they seemed to know them or were happy to make an introduction – everyone seems to be running in the race together – and if you trip up, or need a helping hand they are truly there for each other, to support, mentor and share where they can. I genuinely got the feeling they were in this fight to beat cyber-security threats together.

If you get the chance to visit Israel, then snap it up. It has a buzz about it which I found incredibly infectious and fun to do business there. Plus, where else can you go in December where it’s 80 degrees and you can eat outside in some of the best restaurants and bars in the world?

 

Security Serious Unsung Heroes and Security Week – Come & Get Involved!

Over 3 years ago, I had a bonkers idea, (yet another), to create a series of activities for Cyber-Security Month in October, the month that traditionally was labelled cyber-security month but nothing ever happened. So during the summer with just 6 weeks to pull it off, together with the awesome Eskenzi staff, a number of wonderful trusting clients and dynamic CISOs somehow we got 100 companies to stand outside the Tower of London with banners all declaring our commitment to security! There began Security Serious Week which comprised of dozens of free awareness webinars, a conference and in the last couple of years an incredible Awards evening for the real heroes in the security industry.

The Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards this year was not only great fun, but played host to over 100 real heroes who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes for years and years to secure our national infrastructure, kept lorries on the roads, planes in the air and money flowing through the banking system without major disruption. Last year we even crowned Professor Edward Tucker, the Godfather of Security as founder of ISO 27001 alongside many dozens of CISOs proudly collecting their awards, including Steve Wright from John Lewis – who said “I’ve literally never won or been recognised for anything in my life – and this means the world to me – it’s one of my proudest moments of my life”.

The awards really do recognise and reward the people who are the backbone of our industry and shortly we will be going back on the hunt for next year’s unsung heroes. So if you have customers, friends or colleagues who you think should be recognised for an award – let us know! The awards entry takes literally moments and is free to enter and free to attend. Go to www.securityserious.com

Now here comes the part where you can help us! To run the awards we need sponsorship, but not much. For just £3000 you can sponsor an award and you’ll get tons of exposure for your sponsorship.

This is what you will get as part of your sponsorship:

• Logo on Security Serious Website for a year
• A webinar which we will host for you during the week on a subject of your choice (as long as it’s not product specific) and you will get all the leads from – on average about 70+
• Mentions on all the pre-event publicity and press releases
• Attendance on the night at the Unsung Heroes Awards, with branding on the night
• Your logo on a canvas at the Awards
• Your logo on the stage banners
• Mentions in all mailshots that will be sent out by Eskenzi PR

These are the categories that you can sponsor:

Captain Compliance

This award will go to the person who has mastered legal jargon around compliance – and possibly the challenges of doing so in the Cloud – and has taken bold steps to ensure data protection, working tirelessly to comply with the vast array of regulations that affect their industry sector.

Fraud Fighter You don’t have to tell this person that customer data is some of the most important data held within an organisation.  The Fraud Fighter winner will have implemented a procedure within the organisation to help keep data safe, avert or detect fraud.

Godfather of Security

This award will go to someone who has been around the block and back and contributed greatly to the IT Security industry for more than 25 years.

Cyber-Writer – Sponsored by SE Labs

This award will go to the IT security writer who is completely on the ball and understands cyber security, demonstrating this through thought-provoking, well-written articles and interviews that help educate and inform his/her audience.

Security Avengers Security is not a one man job so this award will recognise the best IT security team and how it averted a security disaster or persevered in the fight to keep the organisations safe from cyber threats.

Best Security Awareness Campaign – GSK

In order to increase education on cyber threats and digital behaviours within the workplace, Security Awareness campaigns are often a vital part of getting the message out. This award will honour the campaign and the individuals who organised the campaign.

Security Leader/Mentor

The winner of this award will be someone in industry who leads a team or mentors individuals, taking the time to show them the ropes and ensure those coming through the ranks are prepared for the future.

Apprentice/Rising Star

Our future cyber welfare depends largely on these rising stars.  Whether in formal education, under employment or doing extraordinary research of their own, the winner of this category will show great promise with his/her technical or practical ability.

Best Educator

This award will go to a professor, lecturer or teacher who leads by example to inspire and motivate the next generation of cyber security professionals.

CISO Supremos

CISOs play an important role in securing all aspects of the business and implementing programmes that increase the security posture of an organisation. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it – these awards will recognise the best in each of the following sectors:

• Retail
• Finance CNI
• Manufacturing
• Media & Entertainment
• Telecoms and ISPs
• Charity

Categories are available on a first come first served basis, so if you would like to sponsor the awards do let us know asap or if you’d like to come up with your own category give us a call or email beth@eskenzipr.com – Tel: +44 (0)207 1832 832.

 

Sponsor the Second Hacker Tales E-Book – or even contribute a short story

A couple of years ago we published an e-book titled ‘The Hacker Tales: Stories of Hacking, Privacy and Deception’. It was hugely successful being picked up by numerous publications, websites and promoted across multiple social media platforms which resulted in it being downloaded 2000 times.  The idea of the e-book is to be a grown-ups bed-time story book, where through short stories you go off to sleep wondering whether the story you’ve just read could really happen, or was it just fiction, with a moral story running through it!

The short stories can be written by anyone, all you need to do is dream up a scary hacking scenario which could possibly be something that could happen today or not in the near too far distance. They need to be entertaining, riveting, concise and enjoyable with a list of helpful hints and tips to the reader – offering IT security best practices to help readers be more security savvy otherwise there could be consequences.

Would you be interested in sponsoring the next Hacker Tales book for £1,000? Half of the money will be a charitable donation as it will go to the Children’s Charity NSPCC –  http://www.nspcc.org.uk  (which is the charity that the IT security community support through the White Hat Events http://whitehatevents.org.)

In return, your logo will appear in the e-book which will be promoted through the www.itsecurityguru.org and distributed to the entire IT Security Guru database, plus be a main resource to download from http://www.securityserious.com. In addition, Eskenzi will be working hard to promote the e-book through our many media friends and associations which we are hoping will reach over 100,000 people, plus we hope as a sponsor you can promote it through your own channels too. We’ll even provide you with your own digital copy that you can share with your customers.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, we’ll be on the lookout for good stories to include so, if you or any of your colleagues feel inspired to write a chapter of around 1000 words, we’d love you to take a read to consider it for inclusion.

Have a read of the book and let me know if:

1. Make a charity donation to the book by being a sponsor
2. You’d like to contribute a short story

The book will be also be available for download via the Security Serious website, other media sponsors, and we will self-publish through Amazon.

If you’re interested in getting involved then please contact dulcie@eskenzipr.com or call 0207 1 832 837.

Only 5 places left to meet the world’s best analysts, cleverest CISOs and discerning IT decision makers!

Eskenzi PR will once again be organising the IT security analyst & CISO Forum on 1st and 2^nd May 2018 in London – this year we’ve pulled out all the stops to get some really outstanding analysts to fly in from the US, Germany and the UK to meet with just 10 vendors.  Already 5 places have been snapped up, so now we’re on the scout for another 5 leading edge companies who are going to wow the analyst and CISO communities with new innovative technology and strong ambitious plans to grow and show competitive advantage.

This event has been designed to make it incredibly time and cost effective as it combines three events into one:

1. Meeting a year’s worth of analysts in one day
2. A CISO roundtable with between 10-15 of the UKs top CISOs
3. Lead generation opportunity through exhibiting at the CISO debates for over 50 end-users which takes place on the second afternoon of the event.

The Forum has been going for over a decade and is only available to just 10 vendors, of which there are now just 5 places left.

These are the analysts who have so far agreed to attend:

• IDC – Duncan Brown (UK)
• Bloor Research – Fran Howarth (EU)
• Kuppinger Cole + Partner – Martin Kuppinger (EU)
• Quocirca – Bob Tarzey (UK)
• Telesperience – Teresa Cottam (UK)
• Goode International – Alan Goode (UK)
• ABI Research – Michela Menting (UK)
• Ovum –Rik Turner (UK)
• PAC  – Paul Fisher (UK)
• Securosis – Mike Rothman (US)
• 451 Group – Scott Crawford (US)
• Forrester Research – Heidi Shay (US)
• Aberdeen Group – Derek Brink (US)
• NSS Labs – Paula Musich (US)
• David Monahan – EMA (USA)

End-user companies who will attend include:

Santander, National Grid, Network Rail, GlaxoSmithKline, Virgin Media, BP , HMRC, Commerzbank, BBC, BT,  Foreign Commonwealth Office, John Lewis , NFU Mutual,, Betfair, Channel 4, Lloyds, Unilever, Barclays, The Economist, HSBC, Home Office, Cabinet Office, NHS.

If you have new products and have something refreshing and insightful to impart to the analyst community then you should seriously consider attending this event.

The cost of the event is £13,500 which includes the entire 2 day event, including accommodation for 2 nights in Park Lane’s Intercontinental Hotel, which is absolutely gorgeous, plus dinner for 2 nights and breakfast and lunch over the 2 days.  Any additional delegates attend for £1000 plus VAT.

The event will once again take place at No.4 Hamilton Place, Mayfair, London W1J and we hope you will be able to attend.

If you are interested in reserving a place please call Yvonne on +44 (0)207 1832 832 or email yvonne@eskenzipr.com