A consulting firm founded and led by two well-known cybersecurity veterans laid off six people last week, TechCrunch has learned.
Krebs Stamos Group was founded in 2021 by Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former chief security officer, and Chris Krebs, the former director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, who was famously fired by a tweet from then-President Donald Trump.
“In our third year of operation, we’ve seen a shift in what our customers need. As a company, it is essential for us to adapt to these changes, and as a result we have had to let go six of our team members. We are immensely grateful for their hard work and dedication, and we are committed to supporting them as they transition into new roles,” Stamos told TechCrunch in a statement. “We are excited about the future and continuing our mission to secure some of the world’s most important companies.”
In April, the company had 18 employees — including the founders — according to an archived version from its website. On Thursday, the site only shows 14 team members.
The layoffs at a relatively small consultancy show once again that the cybersecurity industry is not immune to the seemingly endless series of layoffs at technology companies. On May 3, cybersecurity firm Bishop Fox laid off about 50 employees just days after throwing a party at RSA, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity conferences. Last year, Patreon laid off five people from its cybersecurity team.
The layoffs came as a surprise to some.
“It came as a shock to everyone. I know I was shocked when I heard the news,” a former employee told TechCrunch. “I thought there was a lot of work in the pipeline.”
Last year, (ISC)²a nonprofit organization for “information security leaders” predicted that cybersecurity would be spared from the wave of mass layoffs, as cybersecurity teams “will be least affected by workforce cuts as organizations anticipate an increase in cyberthreats in 2023.”
The threats continue, but so do the layoffs.
Do you have information about layoffs at other cybersecurity companies? You can safely contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Wickr, Telegram and Wire @lorenzofb, or email lorenzo@techcrunch.com. You can also contact TechCrunch at SecureDrop.
