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Table of Contents

• 2024 Recap on Securing Things

  • The Newsletter Hustle

  • The Consulting/Advisory Services Biz

  • The Academy Gig

• 2025 - future of Securing Things - The Plan

• My Recent Most Viewed Social Posts:

• Feedback

Hello Securing Things Community,

This is it - Good Bye. Happy New Year!

This is my last newsletter, and I just want to express my heartfelt thanks and best wishes to all of you, especially the amazing Securing Things community members who have subscribed and share their feedback often.

Wishing you all the best as we say goodbye to 2024 and wrap up the year!

When I thought about writing this, I said to myself, there’s so little to talk about 2024.

As 2024 was a year filled with personal and professional challenges, progress, at times felt a very lone ride and at other felt like a burnout, failures or lack of success on several initiatives, success on project deliverables, many lessons learned and a year of personal growth.

I hope and wish it has been a much greater year for all of you and your careers.

II saw a few founders who couldn't make it and returned to world of regular 9-to-5 jobs.

I was lucky enough to barely survive the storm in 2024 and with a billable Q4. Hoping for a better 2025.

Many faced trials and tribulations, losing jobs and or loved ones, property/homes, and or caught in the war. My heartfelt condolences to all those, especially the war victims. It has truly been a very sad year for humanity. May we see a better world in 2025 and beyond.

So, here’s what is in store for you in this newsletter:

→ a little tale of my escapades over the past year and a peek into the crystal ball of the Securing Things brand's future. Spoiler alert: it involves less fortune-telling and more Securing Things for you & your business!

2024 Summary (looking back at last year) and 2025 Plans (looking ahead to next year):

→ the newsletter,

→ the consulting/advisory services,

→ the academy progress and or its challenges,

→ + announcements and my gift to those who put the trust and joined the community.

2024 Recap on Securing Things

(So in case you missed, and/are here for 1st time, this should serve as good starting point).

Here’s some reflections on the past on how things turned out to be in 2024 in terms of:

The Newsletter Hustle

Published → 42 newsletters editions, since the launch on beehiiv platform in Dec 2023.

Wrote → >70K+ words, that’s ~250+ pages, across newsletters published only in 2024.

Growth → >4K+ members on LinkedIn, while only a couple of hundreds on beehiiv.

Started → 5 types of multi-part series, and was able to only finish the quarterly ones.

• OT Security Dozen - a 12 part series in building an OT Cybersecurity Program,

• Getting Started in IT & OT Cybersecurity - a 3 phase and 12 steps blueprint,

• Chronicles of Cybersecurity Consulting - sharing experiences 1st, 2nd, 3rd,

• Introduction to ISA/IEC 62443 series - a multi-part series on the standard,

• Quarterly Cybersecurity Insights on IT, OT/ICS, AI, Opensource → Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4.

My focus remained on following themes:

→ share industry experience, insights and educational content e.g. guides for CISOs, CIOs, CTOs, Auditors and Security Professionals on:

• Digital Transformation and or Manufacturing at Risk.

• IT & OT/ICS Cyber Resilience and Transformation Program,

• OT cybersecurity best practices and SMB OT and SMB IT toolkits,

• AI Cybersecurity, Guide to AI,

• IT & OT Cybersecurity Strategy,

• crash course on Quantum Computing Cybersecurity, and

• crash course on Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR).

According to beehiiv platform:

Despite that, for last few weeks, thoughts of quitting the newsletter hustle kept my mind occupied, and my decision was almost certain, as I could only recover ~25% of my investments in the newsletter hustle for 2024.

I saw considerable growth in terms of subscribers on Linkedin but not on the newsletter platform, and I concluded that since all editions were openly accessible, readers didn’t opt in on subscribing. So I experimented with few, behind the subscriber wall, still free, but it worked to some extent.

Apparently the most viral post was an edition about other newsletters:

→ Top IT, OT/ICS & AI Cybersecurity Newsletters - You can't go without.

with >14K views on LinkedIn. That didn’t increased Security Things community members, but am pretty sure it did for other newsletters on the list. :-)

Common, subscribe to my newsletter, and keep me motivated to publish more.

Do let me know should I keep all or some content gated? type in comments below.

The Consulting/Advisory Services Biz

Projects → Nearly 40% of engagements were on IT cybersecurity, while over 60% focused on OT cybersecurity. Of these, almost 25% involved both IT and OT/ICS. Projects included assessments, security questionnaires, strategy and policy writing, OT security product evaluation, and configuration reviews.

RFPs → Spent over 1.5 months responding to RFPs, completing 85% of the work for major projects like critical infrastructure reviews, SOC advisory etc.. Misled by sales on win chances. Lesson learned.

Social Media → Personal: reached 17.9k followers on LinkedIn.

Social Media → STL: Gained >1500+ LinkedIn, few followers on X/Twitter & YouTube.

The above two activities took most of my time and some volunteering effort in different OT/other committees virtually.

The Academy Gig

Published a brief introduction on IT-OT CySEAT (Cyber Security Education & Transformation). Also, a teaser for an assignment presentation on IT-OT CySEAT course. The 40% launch discount is still applicable while it last.

And also a teaser for Master class on Singapore CCOP standards.

Finalised and launch digital products on Academy related to OT.

However, no excuses, I failed to launch the first course per my original plan for Q3 2024. Several months behind. What contributed to it was:

• Time constraints from running the first two things (hustle and biz).

• Self-doubt contributed to it and or overthinking about pricing.

• Slow growth on wait-list or lack of demand in the offer.

I wrote and publish about the updates in the following newsletter editions;

• Boost your cyber defense game through IT & OT Cybersecurity Trainings.

• Complexity Ain’t an Excuse for OT/ICS in-security - a kind of free mini lesson from IT & OT CySEAT training program.

In summary, I worked a lot and got paid less in 2024 (compared to 2022-2023). This has to change in 2025 :-) Am sure you can resonate with that, can you?

2025 - future of Securing Things - The Plan

The Newsletter Hustle

Complete → OT Security Dozen, Getting started IT & OT Cybersecurity, ISA/IEC 62443 introduction series and continue with quarterly insights and chronicles of consulting series.

Target to publish weekly / 48 newsletters in 2025. Figure out ways to enhance community / readers experience or engagement, hopefully with more valuable content to consume. Some digital downloads and on-demand workshops to be expected in 2025. Keep tabs on this one.

So keep an eye out on the upcoming changes, new editions and more.

More crash course style posts? is that something you’d like to see more? let me know in comments on reply to this.

The Consulting/Advisory Services Biz

First and foremost, no more RFP responses please :-| or at-least it’ll be a paid engagement.

Work on updating company website refresh and focus on few key services.

Working on building digital downloads / products. A couple are up on the Academy site.

Need to figure out some automation on workflows and processes. If you as a business isn’t doing it, I think we need to start exploring as soon as we can.

The Academy Gig

See the updated page: IT-OT CySEAT (Cyber Security Education & Transformation).

40% launch discount is still valid + 10% further discount till end of Jan 2025 or first 100 registrations, whichever comes first. 

However, those who have or joined the wait list already, are going to receive an additional 10% discount i.e. 60%. off the launch price as a new year gift of trust.

But before I release the price and open the course for registration in next week or so:

I’d like your input. What would be the cost of the course you’ll be willing to pay?

Let me know, by hitting reply and or if reading on the newsletter website, email “newsletter[@]securingthings[.]com” .

My Recent Most Viewed Social Posts:

Feedback

I invite #SecuringThings community to share their feedback.

Your feedback and input is invaluable to me as we work together to strengthen our cybersecurity defenses and create a safer and smarter digital society. Thank you for your trust and continued support.

Do register, validate your email, and request login link to submit poll to be able to enter a chance to win a future course giveaway. Also:

Here's to Securing Things in 2025 onwards! See you in 2025.

Thanks for reading - until the next edition!

It’s a Great Day to Start Securing Things for a Smart & Safer Society.

Take care and Best Regards,

M. Yousuf Faisal.

Follow Securing Things on LinkedIn | X/Twitter & YouTube.