Sources: Security Firm Norse Corp. Imploding

droopybuns wrote: post #2

my only insight into Norse's shadiness is it's low class tweet stream: https://twitter.com/norsecorp/status/497487387245547521

What problem do you have with them paying people for wearing their vendor swag around a conference full of buyers? $100/h is cheap in the scheme of Black Hat promotions, too.

I love their knit hats. I wonder if I can buy a case of them from Solarflare.

Re: Sources: Security Firm Norse Corp. Imploding

#5

Post by samlinkl » Sat, Jan 30, 2016, 8:48 PM UTC

This is pretty amazing. At least as implied by the article, this isn't just mis-management of the company, this is serious misconduct.

Re: Sources: Security Firm Norse Corp. Imploding

#6

Post by alex_anglin » Sat, Jan 30, 2016, 10:31 PM UTC

efoto wrote: post #3

Doing serious due diligence when joining a startup is always a good advise.

From the fine article: "The data scientist said she vetted Norse’s founders prior to joining the firm, but that it wasn’t until she was fired at the beginning of 2016 that she started doing deeper research into the company’s founders.

“I realized that, oh crap, I think this is a scam,” Landesman said. “They’re trying to draw this out and tap into whatever the buzzwords du jour there are, and have a product that’s going to meet that and suck in new investors.”"

I guess the lesson is that even serious due diligence isn't a guarantee.

Re: Sources: Security Firm Norse Corp. Imploding

#7

Post by meowface » Sat, Jan 30, 2016, 10:33 PM UTC

Didn't exactly call this in particular, but an old comment of mine about how many serious infosec professionals had a very low opinion of Norse: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9855582

Definitely not surprised.

Re: Sources: Security Firm Norse Corp. Imploding

#8

Post by rdl » Sat, Jan 30, 2016, 11:40 PM UTC

meowface wrote: post #7

Didn't exactly call this in particular, but an old comment of mine about how many serious infosec professionals had a very low opinion of Norse: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9855582 Definitely not surprised.

A lot of infosec professionals have the same opinion of the "threat intelligence" pile-on overall.

Norse had some amazing engineers working on their appliance, way before demand in any way justified that level of investment. Fortunately most of them have already found new jobs.

Re: Sources: Security Firm Norse Corp. Imploding

#9

Post by meowface » Sat, Jan 30, 2016, 11:45 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #8

meowface wrote: post #7

Didn't exactly call this in particular, but an old comment of mine about how many serious infosec professionals had a very low opinion of Norse: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9855582 Definitely not surprised.

A lot of infosec professionals have the same opinion of the "threat intelligence" pile-on overall. Norse had some amazing engineers working on their appliance, way before demand in any way justified that level of investment. Fortunately most of them have already found new jobs.

True, the threat intelligence industry is a mess and reminds me a little of early tech startups in the last bubble. It's a response to breach hysteria.

Threat intel is a good idea in theory. As more and more threat intel companies start being filtered and shutdown (and I'm sure 80% or more will), there'll probably be a few left that provide some real value to security programs. Until then, it's just going to be 90% marketing.

Re: Sources: Security Firm Norse Corp. Imploding

#10

Post by el8-rogue-cell » Sat, Jan 30, 2016, 11:55 PM UTC

meowface wrote: post #7

Didn't exactly call this in particular, but an old comment of mine about how many serious infosec professionals had a very low opinion of Norse: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9855582 Definitely not surprised.

A lot of people saw this coming before it actually happened. Everyone has to pay the piper eventually. I predict next company to fail in such a way will be BitSight Technologies - https://www.bitsighttech.com/