Hype Check The best newsletter for CISOs is written by one
The best newsletter for a CISO is not the one with the most links. It is the one that reflects the reality of the seat: limited attention, real accountability, and a market that profits from your anxiety. It should read fast, take a position, and never waste your time selling you fear.
Hype Check Now is written by Mark Lynd, a five-time CISO who holds the CISSP, ISSAP, and ISSMP. Each issue checks one claim against the data and delivers a verdict you could forward to your board, plus a quick sweep of the week's news. It is the read for security leaders who want signal and judgment, not volume.
How each issue works
Same skeleton every issue, a new claim each week, built to read in under two minutes. A hype score from zero to one hundred sets the frame. An executive verdict states the call in one line. A Reality Check walks the data with one clean chart. Two or three cited quotes from named leaders frame the debate. A signal-versus-noise sweep runs the week's news with quick verdicts, and one sourced Number of the Week closes it out.
Why it holds up
Every number is real and citable; nothing is invented or estimated. Public-figure quotes are verbatim and attributed. When a verdict is provisional, it says so. There is no vendor paying for the call, so the verdict answers to the evidence and lands wherever the data points. That independence is the product.
Common questions
Why trust this over other CISO newsletters?
It is written by a five-time CISO with the CISSP, ISSAP, and ISSMP, it takes vendor-neutral positions, and it sources every figure. Judgment plus evidence, in two minutes.
What will I get each week?
A deep Tuesday Reality Check on one claim and a lighter Thursday Scan, both sourced and board-ready.
Is it free?
Yes, free twice a week.
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