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  • 💰 Security, Funded #89 - Mad Sus, US Intelligence Leak, and More AI Has Entered the Chat

💰 Security, Funded #89 - Mad Sus, US Intelligence Leak, and More AI Has Entered the Chat

A review of cybersecurity funding and industry news from the week of April 10th, 2023.

Author

Mike Privette
April 17, 2023 • Reading Time: 9 minutes

Hey there,

Happy Monday, and I hope you had a great weekend!

In this week's issue:

  • Mad Sus

  • US Intelligence Leak

  • More AI Has Entered the Chat

The US Fed expects there to be a “mild recession” thanks to the most recent global banking turmoil, Montana bans TikTok (and all 5 teenagers there think this is “mad sus”), Amazon finally shows up to the generative AI party, Elon Musk quietly started his own AI company named “X.AI Corp,” and another major US intelligence leak.

It’s a short opener today because there were no earnings reports or recaps worth noting for this week!

Onward to this week's issue.

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🛞 Industry News Roundup

  • Montana is the first US state to ban TikTok (more)

  • America’s allies ‘can’t trust us’ after ‘disaster’ intelligence leak (more)

  • IT security spending in the Middle East & Africa to grow 7.9% in 2023 (more)

📅 YTD Funding

A rolling 12-week chart to compare funding each week between 2022 and 2023.

Cybersecurity funding in the first two weeks of Q2 2023 are remaining very consistent YoY. Let's see if there is a spike over the next few weeks, thanks to the start of the summer conference season.

💰 Funding Summary

  • 11 companies raised $184.0M across 9 unique product categories

  • 2 companies were acquired or had a merger event across 2 unique product categories

🧩 Funding By Product Category

  • $139.8M for Fraud and Financial Crime Protection across 3 deals

  • $20.1M for Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) across 1 deal

  • $11.5M for Identity and Access Management (IAM) across 1 deal

  • $5.5M for Data Privacy across 1 deal

  • $5.5M for Attack Surface Management (ASM) across 1 deal

  • $1.6M for Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) across 1 deal

  • An undisclosed amount for Personal Cybersecurity across 1 deal

  • An undisclosed amount for Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) across 1 deal

  • An undisclosed amount for Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) across 1 deal

🏢 Funding By Company

🌎 Funding By Country

  • $152.0M for United States across 6 deals 🇺🇸

  • $20.1M for Australia across 1 deal 🇦🇺

  • $5.5M for Singapore across 1 deal 🇸🇬

  • $5.4M for Ireland across 1 deal 🇮🇪

  • $1.6M for France across 1 deal 🇫🇷

  • An undisclosed amount for Spain 🇪🇸

  • An undisclosed amount for Chile 🇨🇱

🤝 Mergers & Acquisitions

  • Archer, a United States-based governance, risk, and compliance platform once a part of RSA Security, was acquired by Cinven for an undisclosed amount.

  • ICY Security, a Denmark-based professional services firm focused on identity and access management (IAM) services, was acquired by Columbus A/S for an undisclosed amount.

📚 Great Reads

  • Why Cybersecurity IS National Security - A post I helped write in collaboration with TFX Capital - Cybersecurity is important for protecting personal information and safeguarding a nation's critical infrastructure, economy, and public safety.

  • Security-by-Design and -Default - CISA, the FBI, the NSA, and the cybersecurity authorities of several governments jointly developed Shifting the Balance of Cybersecurity Risk: Principles and Approaches for Security-by-Design and -Default.

  • Americans now fear cyberattack more than nuclear attack - Americans are more likely to regard cyberterrorism as a “critical threat” to U.S. vital interests than to say this about 10 other international matters. The development of nuclear weapons by Iran or by North Korea places second and third in Americans’ mentions of critical threats in the latest poll.

🐝 Cross Pollinate

Discover something 🆕 this week.

Check out the Friday Tech News newsletter for updates on the broader tech world.

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🧪 Labs

"This one weird trick..." 🤔

Sprinkle your Rooting Powder on the compromised system for instant privilege escalation pic.twitter.com/jQYPIe2aHb— Kelly Shortridge (@swagitda_) April 6, 2023 

🤔 Have questions, comments, or feedback? I'd love to hear from you!

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