We conclude our 2025 Cybersecurity Market re-cap with a look at the defensive and offensive moves brought in by AI tools - in particular through the use of autonomous AI agents. We also cover the implications of the ongoing "platform wars" between major vendors and service providers. Oh, and some of the boring bits...

We also nominate our Heroes of the Year, as well as the Zeros and some of the things we thought were a bit "ho hum" in 2025....

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SpeakPipe link - https://www.speakpipe.com/Cyber_Sidekicks

Or, send us an email:

• Christina Richmond – christina@richmondadvisorygroup.com
• Rory Duncan – rory@richmondadvisorygroup.com

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Technology we use

• Podcast Recording Platform – Cleanfeed.com
• Cyber Sidekicks Show Host – Podbean.com
• Edited & mastered in GarageBand

In the first of our recap of the 2025 cybersecurity market, Christina & I delve into the continuing boom in M&A that has fuelled consolidation since the low-point of 2023, with Alphabet/Google, Palo Alto Networks and others playing a significant role.

We also chat with Alex Holland, Principal Threat Researcher at the HP Security Lab who explains how the quality of social engineering has dramatically improved - with some chilling examples. We also hijack his zoo analogy and end-up discussing pine martins (sorry Alex, that was my fault)....

In next week's episode - number #49 - we conclude our 2025 recap with a roundup of the other major events and trends we saw, and share our "Heroes of the Year" and our "Zeros of the Year"

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Want to leave some feedback and suggestions but would prefer not to write an email? You can leave us a voicemail (90 seconds max). We will share any that are not too spicy in the following episode.

SpeakPipe link - https://www.speakpipe.com/Cyber_Sidekicks

Or, send us an email:

• Christina Richmond – christina@richmondadvisorygroup.com
• Rory Duncan – rory@richmondadvisorygroup.com

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Technology we use

• Podcast Recording Platform – Cleanfeed.com
• Cyber Sidekicks Show Host – Podbean.com
• Edited & mastered in GarageBand

Our first, annual predictions special episode! We delve into what we believe 2026 will mean for the cybersecurity industry, including what trends, technologies and external factors will be prominent over the next 12 months.

Expect a lively discussion covering threat actors, defensive AI agents, post-quantum cryptography, device-level protection, and geopolitical instability.

Products/vendors we mention: IBM's ATOM, Deepwatch, Ontinue, HP Inc.

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Want to leave some feedback and suggestions but would prefer not to write an email? You can leave us a voicemail (90 seconds max). We will share any that are not too spicy in the following episode.

SpeakPipe link - https://www.speakpipe.com/Cyber_Sidekicks

Or, send us an email:

• Christina Richmond – christina@richmondadvisorygroup.com
• Rory Duncan – rory@richmondadvisorygroup.com

Subscribe to our Newsletter - "Signal, not noise" Our monthly newsletter is free to subscribers! Sign-up now at Richmond Advisory Group.

Technology we use

• Podcast Recording Platform – Cleanfeed.com
• Cyber Sidekicks Show Host – Podbean.com
• Edited & mastered in GarageBand

This week we discuss the under-the-radar purchase by Palo Alto Networks of observability specialist Chronosphere for $3.35 billion: what does it mean for both companies and for the wider industry? Rory also has a great chat with Alex Berger, Head of Marketing at Ontinue about the latest developments in MDR.

NEWS

Palo Alto Networks to Acquire Chronosphere, “Next-Gen Observability Leader”, for the “AI Era” (we added quotes around the parts we think are up for debate/discussion!)

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Want to leave some feedback and suggestions but would prefer not to write an email? You can leave us a voicemail (90 seconds max). We will share any that are not too spicy in the following episode.

SpeakPipe link - https://www.speakpipe.com/Cyber_Sidekicks

Or, send us an email:

• Christina Richmond – christina@richmondadvisorygroup.com
• Rory Duncan – rory@richmondadvisorygroup.com

Subscribe to our Newsletter - "Signal, not noise" Our monthly newsletter is free to subscribers! Sign-up now at Richmond Advisory Group.

Technology we use

• Podcast Recording Platform – Cleanfeed.com
• Cyber Sidekicks Show Host – Podbean.com
• Edited & mastered in GarageBand

We had a wide-ranging chat with renowned cybersecurity researcher, innovator and author Harold Moss, looking at why we need to treat AI Agents like people - with their own identities - so that we can better manage any potential risk around their increasingly autonomous actions.

NEWS

Bridging the Skills Gap: How Military Veterans Are Strengthening Cybersecurity

Wiz and Microsoft alumni launch Mate with $15.5M Seed to build AI-native security operations

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Want to leave some feedback and suggestions but would prefer not to write an email? You can leave us a voicemail (90 seconds max). We will share any that are not too spicy in the following episode.

SpeakPipe link - https://www.speakpipe.com/Cyber_Sidekicks

Or, send us an email:

• Christina Richmond – christina@richmondadvisorygroup.com
• Rory Duncan – rory@richmondadvisorygroup.com

Subscribe to our Newsletter - "Signal, not noise" Our monthly newsletter is free to subscribers! Sign-up now at Richmond Advisory Group.

Technology we use

• Podcast Recording Platform – Cleanfeed.com
• Cyber Sidekicks Show Host – Podbean.com
• Edited & mastered in GarageBand

Cary Hudgins, VP of Product Management for Fortra's Cyber Portfolio joins us this week to chaqt about the increasing complexity of cybersecurity, particularly on the data storage side of things: data lakes, data warehouses and now data lakehouses. Rory also tries telepathy with Christina, with predictable results....

NEWS

5 Plead Guilty in US to Helping North Korean IT Workers

Chinese spies told Claude to break into about 30 critical orgs. Some attacks succeeded…

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Want to leave some feedback and suggestions but would prefer not to write an email? You can leave us a voicemail (90 seconds max). We will share any that are not too spicy in the following episode.

SpeakPipe link - https://www.speakpipe.com/Cyber_Sidekicks

Or, send us an email:

• Christina Richmond – christina@richmondadvisorygroup.com
• Rory Duncan – rory@richmondadvisorygroup.com

Subscribe to our Newsletter - "Signal, not noise" Our monthly newsletter is free to subscribers! Sign-up now at Richmond Advisory Group.

Technology we use

• Podcast Recording Platform – Cleanfeed.com
• Cyber Sidekicks Show Host – Podbean.com
• Edited & mastered in GarageBand

This week, Mike Perez, a Director at managed IT and security services provider Ekco chats to us about Digital Loss Prevention (DLP), incident readiness, how they use deepfakes for customer tabletop cybersecurity training exercises and more!

NEWS

Bank of England says JLR's cyberattack contributed to UK's unexpectedly slower GDP growth

Vulnerability management vendor Intruder publishes its 2025 Exposure Management Index

Leave us a message!

Want to leave some feedback and suggestions but would prefer not to write an email? You can leave us a voicemail (90 seconds max). We will share any that are not too spicy in the following episode.

SpeakPipe link - https://www.speakpipe.com/Cyber_Sidekicks

Or, send us an email:

• Christina Richmond – christina@richmondadvisorygroup.com
• Rory Duncan – rory@richmondadvisorygroup.com

Subscribe to our Newsletter - "Signal, not noise" Our monthly newsletter is free to subscribers! Sign-up now at Richmond Advisory Group.

Technology we use

• Podcast Recording Platform – Cleanfeed.com
• Cyber Sidekicks Show Host – Podbean.com
• Edited & mastered in GarageBand

Oh boy, we had a wide-ranging and detailed discussion this week with Andy Ash (aka "Andy Two"), CISO at Netacea about the role of AI agents and bots in identity management and threat intelligence. How much risk do we trade off against convenience, and how does this affect our security?

NEWS

CISO Burnout – Epidemic, Endemic, or Simply Inevitable?

CrowdStrike releases its 2025 European Threat Landscape Report

Leave us a message!

Want to leave some feedback and suggestions but would prefer not to write an email? You can leave us a voicemail (90 seconds max). We will share any that are not too spicy in the following episode.

SpeakPipe link - https://www.speakpipe.com/Cyber_Sidekicks

Or, send us an email:

• Christina Richmond – christina@richmondadvisorygroup.com
• Rory Duncan – rory@richmondadvisorygroup.com

Subscribe to our Newsletter - "Signal, not noise" Our monthly newsletter is free to subscribers! Sign-up now at Richmond Advisory Group.

Technology we use

• Podcast Recording Platform – Cleanfeed.com
• Cyber Sidekicks Show Host – Podbean.com
• Edited & mastered in GarageBand