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Cyber Thoughts Newsletter
JANUARY 2025
Happy 2025!
Like every team, we decided to make a list of predictions. Unlike every team, we won’t be using AI to generate them. So, if these predictions don’t land, at least you can blame humans, just like the old days.
The IPO Window Will Open in 2025. Honestly, this doesn’t feel too daring but it would make us very happy. This will help finally clear out the last of the Zombiecorns—those companies still pretending they’re worth last round’s valuation while everyone else knows better. While a lot of the deadwood has been cleared already, the IPO is a welcome way to flatten those pesky preference stacks.
On a related note, our good friend Aziz Gilani from Mercury recently said:
“2025 will be a year where VCs will be focused on testing and reacting to public market receptivity to various types of companies trying to IPO. Once the pattern events for a successful offering, expect the floodgates to open!” - Aziz Gilani, General Partner, Mercury Fund
Aziz is one of our favorite co-investors, and we are happy to be in sync with his thinking.
Elon Buys an Island and Names it X. We expect it to have a super sick volcano lair, but we’d also accept an undersea room with a shark tank wall. He’s already got space and land; the ocean is his final frontier. We’re betting it’ll come with a Bond-villain-worthy naming ceremony livestreamed on Twitter, sorry, X.
Personal Cyber Insurance Becomes a Thing.
You can buy personal cyber insurance now—did you know that? Neither did we. But with attacks on individuals skyrocketing and deepfakes outpacing our collective sanity, this might just become the new life insurance for the digital age. One of our family members was recently phished. It turned out to be largely benign, but in telling the story we’ve heard similar stories from many others.
Pro tip: Set up a family “SafeWord” for financial phone calls today. Seriously. Just don’t pick ‘Setec Astronomy’—that’s ours.
Cyber Thoughts Becomes the Most Shared Newsletter of January 2025. Given the epic intelligence and astounding generosity of our current readership it’s a pretty easy prediction that they’ll go out of their way to share this missive with all of their friends and family thus ensuring we go viral. Don’t make us beg. (Okay, fine: Please, please share it.)
But seriously, please forward this to one person you think would get a kick out of our writings. Remember, Santa AI Elon is watching.
Crypto + Cyber Gets Recognized by Gartner. With crypto back in the news, cybersecurity companies are turning their eyes back to the blockchain. And where goes hype, Gartner is there to name it. Where would we be without names like Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), and don’t forget Security Tool Posture Management (STPM). Wait, they haven’t gotten to the last one yet, but just you wait. We’ve started to see a resurgence of blockchain-first security companies. Will it stick this time? We’ll let Gartner decide.
So those are our bold and provocative predictions for 2025. We hope your year is off to a great start and that you’ll join us in our New Years Resolution to retire acronyms like SSPM and just say what we mean. Software-as-a-Service Security Posture Management. See? Wasn’t that liberating?
What We're Reading
Here's a curated list of things we found interesting.
What is Salt Typhoon? A security expert explains the Chinese hackers and their attack on US telecommunications networks
The real news here is that the Chinese Government had access to ALL US call including Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. When the FBI does an about face and suggests people use end-to-end encryption you know it is bad news.
The complex cyberattack, carried out by a group of Chinese hackers dubbed Salt Typhoon, began as far back as 2022. Its purpose, according to U.S. officials, was to give Chinese operatives persistent access to telecommunications networks across the U.S. by compromising devices like routers and switches run by companies like AT&T, Verizon, Lumen and others.The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), has called it the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history”
Things we learned about LLMs in 2024
Looking for a great overview of all the twists and turns that happened in AI over the last year? Open-source developer Simon Willison has come through. From the state of Agentic to some of the coolest LLM features you might not be using, this is a great read.
A lot has happened in the world of Large Language Models over the course of 2024. Here’s a review of things we (Simon Willison and colleagues) figured out about the field in the past twelve months, plus my attempt at identifying key themes and pivotal moments.
Over 600,000 Chrome users at risk after 16 browser extensions compromised by hackers — what you need to know
Supply chain hacks have gone consumer. That cool chrome plugin AI Assistant, it’s stealing your data. The browser is most users' default operating system so this type of attack gains access to most of their crown jewels.
A dangerous new campaign targeting browser extensions has been spotted online. So far, at least 16 extensions have been compromised, with over 600,000 Chrome users now at risk of exposing their browsing data and account credentials online.
Transactions
Deals that caught our eye.
Nvidia closes $700 mln Run:ai acquisition after regulatory hurdles
Chipmaker Nvidia has completed its acquisition of Israeli AI firm Run:ai, the startup said on Monday, following antitrust scrutiny over the buyout.
The European Commission granted unconditional approval to Nvidia's $700 million bid for Run:ai, which helps developers optimize infrastructure for AI, earlier in December after saying in October that the deal would require EU antitrust clearance.
Podcasts
What we’re listening to.
Acquired: The Complete History & Strategy of Novo Nordisk (Ozempic)
Acquired does an amazing job of diving deep on a company, its history, and its strategy. If you want to know why the US drug market is so messed up and expensive, this is a great episode to listen to.
Last year Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, overtook LVMH to become Europe’s most valuable company. And the pull for Acquired to finally tackle healthcare (18% of US GDP!) became too strong for us to resist. While we didn’t know much about Novo Nordisk before diving in, our first thought was, “wow, seems like these new diabetes and obesity drugs mean serious trouble for big insulin companies.”
And then… we realized that Novo Nordisk IS the big insulin company. And in a story befitting of Steve Jobs and Apple, they’d just disrupted themselves with the drug equivalent of an iPhone moment. Once we dug further, we quickly realized this company has it all: an incredible 100+ year history filled with Nobel Prizes, bitter personal rivalries, board room dramas, a generation-defining silicon valley innovation, lone voices persevering against all odds — and oh yeah, the world’s largest charitable foundation at its helm. Tune in for one incredible story!
About Lytical
Lytical Ventures is a New York City-based venture firm investing in Corporate Intelligence, comprising cybersecurity, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Lytical’s professionals have decades of experience in direct investing generally and in Corporate Intelligence specifically.