07 Jan Cybersecurity CEO: Is Your Company Selling Or Storytelling?
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Lessons learned from WSJ, Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and a Fortune 500 CISO
–Steve Morgan, Editor-in-Chief
San Jose, Calif. – Jan. 7, 2026
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Microsoft’s security organization is recruiting a senior director overseeing narrative and storytelling, described as part cybersecurity technologist, part communicator and part marketer.
According to the tech giant’s job posting, the right candidate will shape “hero content” and much more, including the ability to “translate technical innovation into human, emotionally resonant content and experiences” that elevate Microsoft’s brand and drive customer trust. On top of that, they must have a Master’s Degree in Marketing, Computer Science, Business or related field AND 12+ years experience in product marketing or marketing communications in cybersecurity and/or cloud services.
Talk about trying to find the needle in a haystack, notwithstanding that needle’s annual compensation will probably rival that of a top shelf Fortune 500 chief information security officer (CISO).
Does Microsoft have any idea what they’re talking about? We think so. In fiscal 2025, they generated around $37 billion in cybersecurity revenue, representing about 14 percent of its total revenue, according to Investing.com, and Microsoft’s security business can reach $50 billion by 2030 if it grows at a mid-teens CAGR.
Companies for decades relied on mass media and its journalists for publicity, also known as “earned media,” but that avenue has been shrinking for years, according to WSJ. Cybersecurity companies need to pivot their marketing strategies.
The largest pure-play cybersecurity companies, around 30 of them, compiled by Cybercrime Magazine with annual revenues of $500 million or more for the last financial year reported for publicly traded companies, and various sources for privately held companies account for around $48.5 billion in annual revenues.
The big question for every cybersecurity CEO is this: Are you selling or storytelling?
It definitely depends on who you ask. If it’s George Kurtz, co-founder and CEO at Crowdstrike, we suspect its storytelling. He’s an authentic storyteller who never comes across as pitching his company’s products or services. Instead he passionately tells stories about the past, present, and future of our industry and CrowdStrike, about the challenges of defeating cybercriminals and cyberattacks, and really, it makes you want to do business with him and his people.
Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that the world will spend $522 billion on cybersecurity products and services in 2026. When you subtract the biggest vendors, that leaves an enormous purse up for grabs to the rest of the competitors – namely venture funded startups and emerging players.
At Cybercrime Magazine, we’ve met far too many CEOs who want to put the pedal to the medal and sell, sell, sell in hopes of hitting their quarterly numbers, but without any regard for how they may be sending the wrong message to their chief marketing officers (CMOs), and ultimately to their salespeople.
If you’re a cybersecurity CEO who doesn’t believe us and wants to know if you may be alienating decision-makers, then listen to Adam Keown,CISO at Eastman, a Fortune 500 company, on the Cybercrime Magazine Podcast.
Keown advises sales executives to ditch tactics including cold calls, emails and LinkedIn messages that aim to go around the CISO’s staff. And he assures us that old-school selling strategies rooted in FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) do not work.
Keown tells his own stories about receiving early morning and late night phone calls from salespeople who somehow obtained his cell number. This strategy, he assures, is doomed to fail every time.
For CMOs there’s a takeaway too. Ease up on the gated material! A CISO is far more likely to read a white paper or report that doesn’t require them to register for it. Why? CISOs know that giving up their contact info means that there will be a bombardment of vendor follow-up emails coming.
What’s the point to all of this? It’s simple. If you’re a cybersecurity CEO, then now’s the time to start storytelling (if you aren’t already) or your company may crash and burn.
If you want your company to be storytelling, then you can start today, and you don’t have to be a tech giant to do it. We don’t think it always takes an enormous pay package or a Master’s degree to craft and tell cybersecurity stories.
The award-winning Cybercrime Magazine YouTube Channel has around 1.2 million subscribers and many more viewers globally, and it has built up by featuring the top cybersecurity storytellers. Some of them are startups. Watch the latest videos and stories for inspiration and then decide for yourself if selling or storytelling is the way to go.
–Steve Morgan, Editor-in-Chief