Cofounder, Cyble
Security Pill | Interview with Manish Chachada, COO, Cyble | Navigating the Cybersecurity Shake-Up
In this episode, we dive deep into the wave of acquisitions shaking up the cybersecurity industry, latest Mastercard’s takeover of Recorded Future to and explore what this means for businesses across all sectors.
Are these mergers shifting priorities? Should you be concerned about whether your industry will still get the attention it deserves? Join us as we discuss the impact of these changes with Mr. Manish Chachada, COO & Co-Founder of Cyble and explore the best strategies for navigating the evolving landscape, including potential alternatives to ensure your organization’s security remain...
About Manish Chachada
In a September 2024 podcast interview, Manish Chachada, COO and co-founder of Cyble, discussed the impact of Mastercard's acquisition of Recorded Future on the cybersecurity industry. Chachada described the acquisition as a positive sign that provides "more attestation to threat intelligence as a space." He noted that the threat intelligence space is becoming more robust, particularly for the BFSI sector. Chachada stated that Cyble prefers to remain independent to maintain agility and flexibility in decision-making, and he cautioned that post-acquisition, the new owner must understand the acquired business deeply, as shifts in policies and processes can affect outcomes. Chachada said Cyble had anticipated industry consolidation and built its platform with an AI intent from the start, which he argued positions the company well to adapt AI and analytics to customer needs. He emphasized that Cyble takes its own security seriously, citing recent SOC2 compliance and investments in data protection and encryption. Chachada advised organizations to remain adaptive, look for companies solving real use cases, and scrutinize whether a vendor's AI claims are backed by genuine intellectual property and differentiation.
Transcript (24 segments)
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Augustin Korean0:10
Welcome to the podcast by the Cyber Express. Here we do a deep dive into the latest trends and developments shaping the cybersecurity industry. I'm your host, Augustin Korean, and today we are discussing a major shift in the cyber threat intelligence market: the acquisition of Recorded Future by MasterCard. This acquisition is making waves in the industry, raising questions about how it will impact businesses. To help us unpack this, I'm joined by Manish Chachada, the CEO of Cyble, the leading cyber threat intelligence company in the world, known for its independent and agile approach towards protecting organizations against cyber threats. Manish is here to share his insights on how this acquisition is reshaping the landscape and what it means to businesses globally. Manish, thank you for joining us today.
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Manish Chachada0:53
Thanks, Augustin, and hi everyone.
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Augustin Korean1:10
So, Manish, looking at the landscape of cyber threat intelligence, how do you see this particular acquisition impacting the industry?
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Manish Chachada1:18
I think it's a quite significant change, and it's really refreshing to see that because it gives more attestation to the threat intelligence space and everything that cybersecurity holds for today. The change will not be happy for many and good for many too in that sense, but I do see this as a positive sign in terms of how the industry is shaping into and what big players like MasterCard are valuing things at. I think it's important to understand that the cybersecurity space in general and the threat intelligence space in general is having a lot of attention.
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Augustin Korean2:11
Right, right. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel that 2024 has been a year of acquisition for several spaces in the spectrum of cyber threats. Here, Cyble has stayed independent. So could you share how Cyble approached staying completely independent and agile compared to other companies that are now integrated into larger corporations?
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Manish Chachada2:36
Good question. I think my view on that would be a little different. Any acquisition also comes with a lot of problems. Not that it is bad, but acquisitions have their own journey to cover in terms of the growth that the acquisition is generally looking for or the synergies. We can customize it to our customers' needs, remaining agile, having that quick decision making, and giving the information on a near real-time basis. That's what we count on and are known for. So I think acquisition is good for people or companies like Recorded Future where they are in a matured stage. For us, we are very much accessible to the customers' needs and look forward to customizing their needs to our product. That's where we stand independent in that sense. I hope that makes sense.
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Augustin Korean3:42
Well said. In fact, I think you did begin the answer with the problems of acquisitions. So I think one of our takes is that with big acquisitions come a major shift in priorities. So how does Cyble ensure that its customers' needs remain the top priority?
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Manish Chachada4:11
The acquirer also has to understand the business as deeply as the acquirer has been running through. So clearly there is a shift in policies, a shift in processes, a lot of changes, a lot of learning curve that is being built over a period of time. And then obviously the market dynamics also play a role, especially with the new AI era that we are living in. This is where I believe that acquisitions are good, but it's time that tells whether an acquisition is done correctly or not.
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Augustin Korean4:44
That's true. So I think there's also a little bit of a dilemma among the current customers of Recorded Future, especially knowing the acquisition. What advice would you give to them?
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Manish Chachada5:11
The first thing I would tell to everybody, whether it's Recorded Future getting acquired or a new entrant in the market, what's important to know is how well informed are you about the trends that are happening in the industry, and then are the decisions on the acquisition front enabling that or not enabling that? The key to answer that question is how much of the new entrant or the new acquisition is really going to change things for you, and does it impact what you're doing today and disrupt you? Clearly there are players out there who can always backfill and take the opportunity to also enable some of the inefficiencies that may come out from an acquisition. So staying informed is one. And do not worry, we are there. We can always cater to some of the needs there too. But yeah, any change comes with some goods and some bads, as I started my conversation with.
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Augustin Korean6:25
Right, right. Okay, so I think technology also plays a crucial role here, especially in this particular acquisition. And Cyble's one of its core strengths is AI-driven solutions. So how does Cyble's approach to product enhancement differ from its competitors, considering it is very critical to business?
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Manish Chachada6:44
Awesome. I think the best way to put it out, Augustin, would be that Cyble has actually foreseen this coming. When we started the company, we were at a stage where there were not many entrants doing things on AI. We grew ground up with an AI intent in its background. So our flexibility to adapt AI, the volumes of data that we work with, the analytics that we have built, and the amazing team that we have built around it, I think is a clear answer to say that yes, we are quite able to cater to the existing needs of the clients, especially given the fact that we sit with a lot of information that can be accessed and turned into a lot more analytical information. So I think we are right there at the heart of what the customers need today and growing. We have a lot to cover, but I'm not saying that we are perfect.
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Augustin Korean8:12
Data control is becoming increasingly critical in today's environment. So to detail how Cyble ensures customer data is secure, especially right now in an era where acquisition may shift priorities towards monetization?
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Manish Chachada8:30
That's true. And I think as any cybersecurity company would say, our own security is the most prime thing that we need to look into, and Cyble does that quite efficiently today. Our CISO, Richard Sands, comes with a heavy and rich experience from his days at PwC and Y Brands. So we were always very cognizant about security at Cyble, and that's the reason we ended up having him on our side from probably such a short span of time. Kudos to the team there again. So Cyble has taken some really robust initiatives and investments when it comes to our security, whether it is going towards data protection, taking layers of encryption, talking about drills and fire drills and audits, and compliances and whatnot. I think we've been heavily investing in that area, and we don't take our own security lightly. That's how I can put it best.
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Augustin Korean9:42
That's important and well said. Okay, another area where there has been a lot of conversation about, especially in cyber pro versus incident response. So could you share some details, if you don't mind, about Cyble's in-house incident response capabilities?
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Manish Chachada10:12
Third-party vendors obviously do not have the same level. When you are working with a third party, you're always dependent on someone to do things. At Cyble, the best part is we do this in-house. So we have our own intelligence team, our own research team, etc., who work during the point of an incident. So the agility that we bring to the table, the unified communication that we provide at the time of an incident, the layers of experience that we carry from that in-house, all that adds more value because then we become near real-time, if not real-time. And I think that's more important in the middle of an incident. Timing is the essence of solving it, and Cyble also looks at that from a standpoint where we also have our own support to the client when it comes to managing their incidents post-incidence as well.
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Augustin Korean11:21
Okay, all right. So you're one of the co-founders of Cyble, the CEO, and right now we are at a place where the cyber threat intelligence market is changing at a very rapid scale, especially with so many large-scale acquisitions. So if you have any predictions, how is this market going to change and how does Cyble aim to lead the change in innovation?
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Manish Chachada11:48
I think consolidations have always been part of businesses. It's not new. Yes, cybersecurity as an industry is seeing a lot of it. I think the companies read this, and with the inefficiencies that some of the companies had, it's always good to go partner with someone and cover a little more ground there because it's tough times out there to manage businesses. Cyble's approach on that front is we believe in our own product innovation primarily. So what we rather focus on, rather than going into synergies of acquisitions, is basically building our own ecosystem where we can provide value to the client from what we are doing and the level of intelligence that we bring to the table. I'm not saying that Cyble is never going to look at acquisitions or has not looked at acquisitions even today, whether it's us acquiring or you know, we've been at the heart of doing this from an upstream. So we had the opportunity to correct a lot of inefficiencies that existed in the market when we came in, and we primarily focused on those in terms of building our products, building what we are building today, and also adding a lot of innovations to it. Time will tell how it pans out, but so far I think we've done good on the innovation front.
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Augustin Korean13:41
Right, right. Okay, so finally to conclude, if there is one message that you would like to leave for businesses that may be feeling uncertain about the future of threat intelligence in the wake of this culture of acquisition, what would that be?
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Manish Chachada13:55
I think the best answer I can tell is to stay updated. Look for companies that are working on innovation, look for companies that are really trying to solve the use cases rather than making noise around it. Read the cues well. The more you read, the more you become informed, and I think information is key. That's what we provide as well in terms of the solution that we have. More so, look for companies that are really going towards an innovative path, not just remaining stale with what we've been doing, but really thinking out of the box. AI and machine learning buzzwords are there in every company's pitch deck, but I think it's important to really understand how much of that AI is truly AI and what is it that they're not piggybacking on versus building in terms of their own IP, because that's where the differentiator can come through. You know, well, that's it from my end. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
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Augustin Korean15:10
No, I think you've covered it very seriously, and I think Cyble takes it very seriously. So I would say stay safe. We would love to make the world a safer place together, collaborate, partner, and so on. So all the very best and congratulations to the Recorded Future team for achieving such a graceful exit. Appreciate it.
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Manish Chachada15:27
Great, great.
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Augustin Korean15:27
Okay, so that's all for today. A big thank you to Manish for sharing his insights and providing clarity about how businesses can navigate this shift. Thank you so much for your time, Manish. It was really amazing talking to you. Thanks everyone.
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Manish Chachada15:39
Thank you, appreciate it.