Articles

In our first article on RSA Conference 2026, we discussed the practical side of attending: what it costs, how to position yourself on the floor, and whether the trade mission was worth it. This article goes a layer deeper. Beyond the logistics, the conference is a mirror held up to the entire cybersecurity industry. What…

We went to RSA Conference 2026 as part of a trade mission — partly out of curiosity, and partly because someone had convinced us it was worth the flight. What we found was a week that was bigger, louder and more expensive than we’d expected, and at the same time surprisingly manageable in ways we…

Sales and marketing have been at odds for years. Marketing creates visibility, builds brand awareness with a niche audience, and hopes that prospects will reach out on their own at the right moment. The problem is that B2B products are often complex, and there isn’t always a direct trigger for a prospect to make contact…

The short answer: yes. But not for the reason most people think. RSA Conference in San Francisco is known as the cybersecurity event in the world. Hundreds of booths, tens of thousands of visitors, and an overwhelming amount of “bling bling.” For many Dutch startups and scale-ups, it therefore feels like a big, expensive gamble:…

Cybersec Netherlands is coming up. It’s the place where security companies, CISOs, startups, and innovators meet. Of course, you want to make a good impression. But what does that really mean? A slick booth, new brochures, matching hoodies for the whole team? That can work. But if you’re not careful, you’ll fall into the same…

When I started my CISO research, I asked myself: Are CISOs the right audience for security vendors? Looking at the number of CISOs in the Netherlands (only 1100) and the big differences between organizations, I’d argue that in many situations, they are not the right target audience. So, who do you focus on instead? It…

“Please don’t contact me,” said the CISO. Or did they? Vendors almost always complain about buyers’ openness to new solutions. Something that everyone takes for granted. After all, the CISO’s role is to lower risks, and new tools inherently come with new challenges. So, we tested this. How many CISOs actually ask not to be…

“There are two types of CISOs. The group of people who are busy checking boxes, compliance, and then there’s a group that believes in process innovation, solving risks.” During a recent interview for Security Innovation Stories, this observation from a CISO sparked an interesting question: how much of it is true? Read the first article…

Organizations that embrace demand generation outperform their competitors who stick to traditional lead generation. This not only leads to higher long-term revenue growth but also prevents a trust crisis in the IT security sector. The traditional focus on lead generation often lacks the nuance needed to build trust in the security industry. The question is…

“We’ve seen your book all over LinkedIn,” Chantal Stekelenburg remarked when Bram de Bruijn, co-founder of Beyond Products, was a guest on the Angry Nerds Podcast. This comment captures the essence of the marketing campaign behind Security Innovation Stories, Bram’s book, which was launched in February 2024. The book, written by Bram and promoted by…