Accumuli Share Discussion Threads

[little minx] 14/6/2014 09:00

Double Post

[little minx] 14/6/2014 08:56

Guys, is Ian smith still invested here I.e. the 7 million option ?

LM

[rivaldo] 11/6/2014 10:13

ACM have issued another advisory against cyber-attack FYI:



"Accumuli response to CVE-2014-0224 (Open SSL MITM Vulnerability)
Thursday 5th June 2014

Alcatel-Lucent & Infoblox DDI solutions are unaffected by this vulnerability, further details are provided below.
•Alcatel-Lucent has confirmed that both VitalQIP and their Appliance Range are unaffected by this vulnerability.
•Infoblox has confirmed that No NIOS DNS servers are vulnerable to this attack.

Further Information

This attack can only be performed between a vulnerable client and server – in order for the attack to be possible both sides need to be vulnerable. OpenSSL clients are vulnerable in all versions of OpenSSL. Servers are only known to be vulnerable in OpenSSL 1.0.1 and 1.0.2-beta1. Users of OpenSSL servers earlier than 1.0.1 are advised to upgrade as a precaution."

The public sector is now cracking down hard on security breaches and increasing its cyber-protection:



"Top IT data security threats revealed and what organisations must do to stop them
News release: 12 May 2014

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has published a new security report highlighting eight of the most common IT security vulnerabilities that have resulted in organisations failing to keep people's information secure.

The flaws were identified during the ICO's investigations into data breaches caused by poor IT security practices. Many of these incidents have led to serious security breaches resulting in the ICO issuing monetary penalties totalling almost a million pounds. The breaches could have been avoided if the standard industry practices highlighted in today's report were adopted.

etc"

[fizzypop] 09/6/2014 09:26

So divi forecast increase 16% from 0.6p last year to 0.7p as mentioned by CEO above.

[rivaldo] 09/6/2014 08:35

Cheers deej4y, excellent article. Huge growth potential, with further acquisitions likely to keep the pot bubbling nicely.

[bbluesky] 08/6/2014 21:05

Many thx for the post dj

[deej4y] 08/6/2014 20:19

From weeks shares mag

CEO Gavin Lyons has ambitious expansion plans for IT security business

There's no doubt that the IT landscape
is shifting but it is the speed at which
change is happening that takes your
breath away. With the advent of cloud
hosting, mobile apps and ever-more complex
enterprise software there are billions of bytes
of digital data today that we didn't have even a
year ago, and future growth will be exponential,
as we explained in last month's piece on cyber
security (see Sector Report, Shares, 15 May). Even
an expert like Gavin Lyons, chief executive officer
(CEO) of cyber security specialist Accumuli
(ACM:AIM) is bowled over, as he explained
when we caught up for chat in London last week.
'The way that this has escalated, it's gone beyond
everybody's wildest expectations.'
In what was a piece of interesting timing, I met
Lyons just hours after the latest hacking attack
controversy broke, when online marketplace
giant eBay (EBAY:NDQ) revealed that cyber
thieves had stolen personal data from 145 million
of its users. Where hacking was once about
'bragging rights, showing that you could take
down a network, now it's becoming a money
machine', explains Lyons. And the stakes are
high, both financially and professionally. When
US retailer Target (TGT:NYSE) revealed it had
been the victim of a data breach last month, it
cost CEO Gregg Steinhafel his job.
What's also shocking is just how easy it is to
join the cyber crime or hacktivist ranks. 'I saw
on undercover forums that you can now get an
SLA (service level agreement) on some malware
guaranteed to infiltrate an environment for
€300,' Lyons tells me. But the biggest bombshell
comes next. 'It's literally got a 24/7 support team
making sure it works, any problems you've got
24/7 email and phone support.' That will possibly
shock those that have yet to grasp just how
sophisticated and business-like today's hackers
are. 'This is not a one-off either, they're operating
from all over the world,' confirms Lyons.
Changing landsCape
Cyber crime spells troubling times ahead for
organisations both big and small, and especially for
business leaders that can't tell a byte from a reboot.
'Back in ancient times, you'd build a castle and
whoever had the highest walls was most protected,'
Lyons says. But those metaphorical walls today
are coming down as trends like bring your own
device (BYOD) to work, and others, emerge. 'When
you're an IT executive the question is always how
much is enough,' explains Lyons. Companies could
accumuli fights cyber crime end up mailing infinite cheques into a bottomless
pit. 'So that's why we're here,' the CEO explains.
'We say to an organisation, here's the risk that we
perceive, let's look at your budgets and advise you
on the best way to invest that money. The trick is to
understand what's critical to your business, be it an
excel spreadsheet, a new car design or whatever.'
The Aim-listed buy-and-build consolidator
has established a business aimed at analysing
cyber threats, providing the tools to blunt
them, and often, managing the systems for
clients. Those customers are typically small to
medium-sized business in both the commercial
and public sector, with anything from 1,000 to
10,000 staff, although Accumuli does work with
bigger organisations through selected partners,
including Cisco Systems (CSCO:NDQ),
Juniper Networks (JNPR:NYSE) and big data
specialist Splunk (SPLK:NDQ).
Lyons is cagey about naming customers though,
in fact he sidesteps a few details, partly because of
competitive circumspection and also because the
firm is in close period ahead of full year results to
end March pencilled in for 23 June.

Bolted together

It's taken a while to pull it all together but
Accumuli can embrace the future as a multilayered
network security business able to supply
an end-to-end managed cyber security service
for clients. Using vast volumes of data to spot odd
behaviour, and potential security threats, it is
becoming the first line of defence, or FLoD as it's
known in the business. 'There's some really clever
technology coming out now, things that sets
honey traps for cyber criminals so that the hunter
becomes the hunted,' Lyons tells me.
'There's an interesting organisation we're
working with at the moment that has the ability to
track digital shadow footprints on both the normal
internet and the dark web,' which are websites
that cannot be accessed by normal means, perhaps
certain military websites for example. The
technology can track activity and predict potential
breaches of security, such as 'conversations
between hacktivists' that can provide clues to
future cyber attacks. Clever stuff indeed.
Enterprise IT is finely balanced between large
trends (use of Big Data, mobile computing, cloud
etc) versus executives demanding more with less
– lower budgets, less people, Lyons tells me. 'It's a
nightmare for them.' From his point of view, 'this
is where an independent specialist like Accumuli
can be the voice of experience and reason, we can
work with an organisation and help them manage
that perennial challenge'.
Lyons explains that 'being independent is
critical,' as he wants the freedom to look at
different technologies and recommend the
right one for the client, which is the 'key thing'.
The business breaks down into three basic
components:
• Technology solutions. Here it works with
27 different technology vendors to recommend
the right selection for customers.
• Professional services. This entails boardlevel
consulting and high-specification on-site
implementation.
• Managed services. This is effectively
implementing and running a client's IT security
systems 24/7.
Often contracts are won on a blended basis as
Accumuli operates in a growing and fragmented
market. 'There's a very interesting competitive
landscape for us,' explains Lyons. Last year the firm
continued its buy-and-build land grab, acquiring
Signify Solutions and Eqalis, the former bolstering
its two-factor authentication technology and
customer base, the latter the UK's key reseller of
Splunk, the near $10 billion data analytics supplier.
This provides extra cross-selling opportunities
as well as improving the quality of profits from
recurring revenues now totalling 62%.
Acquisitions will remain key to Accumuli's
future growth, with typically 100 to 150 new
customers thrown in for good measure. 'If you
look at the number of solutions and services we
can potentially sell into a customer, it's beyond
60,' explains Lyons, suggesting that his strategy
of selling more to more customers could have
long legs. 'Seven hundred and four customers
times 60, that's our landscape... if we were going
for 30 years I'd be surprised if we could penetrate
all of those.' Investors should therefore expect
acquisitions to either add client numbers, build
on those 60 solutions, or both. Cash, debt, new
shares, all will be considered to pay for future
acquisitions to get the right deal on the right
terms, although reading between the lines Lyons
suggests a slight preference for cash deals like
we've seen in the past. But the importance of
getting the culture right is something the CEO
has learned over his career, and he puts a lot
of stock in getting the right blend of talent,
experience and ambition.
penetration, penetration, penetration
Lyons reveals that tracking penetration by the
sales team is a key performance indicator (KPI)
going forward, although he's unable to comment
on the current rate because of close-period rules.
There are other KPIs that management track
internally and perhaps some of these will be
revealed to investors and the market, although
the CEO presses the point that nothing will
happen along these lines without thorough
discussion and the board's rubber stamp.
But this is an increasingly crowded space, and
competition will presumably get stiffer. Lyons
acknowledges the competitive threat as he
explains three core challenges to his plans for
building Accumuli. If one of the world's software
monsters, perhaps a Google (GOOG:NDQ) or
IBM (IBM:NYSE), decided to chuck millions at
building a security business from scratch, that
would likely dent prospects he concedes, but
quickly adds this is unlikely to happen. Getting
and keeping good people is another potential
hazard, 'because this is a very specialised sector
so it can be hard'. His response has been to setup
links with several universities and training
programmes that develop young people and
build their skill sets. There's also an executive
mentoring scheme in place.
Finally, large procurement frameworks
are a potential issue. Accumuli's consultants
might go into a big organisation and make good
recommendations that don't tally with the clients'
preferred supplier lists. That might mean it misses
out on product sales, although not always.
Our conversation draws to a close around
dividends. Not many technology businesses have
such strong cash generation that they can pay
dividends, yet this year's forecast 0.7p payout
from Accumuli is far from insignificant, implying
a 2.6% yield. 'It's great to be able to give money
back to shareholders,' Lyons says with pride

[rivaldo] 06/6/2014 07:20

Cheers euclid5. It would be great to hear about their "ambitious expansion plans" - anyone got full access?



"Accumuli fights cyber crime

CEO Gavin Lyons has ambitious expansion plans for IT security business

There's no doubt that the IT landscape is shifting but it is the speed at which change is happening that takes your breath away. With the advent of cloud hosting, mobile apps and ever-more complex enterprise software there are billions of bytes of ... "

[euclid5] 05/6/2014 11:56

Share Mag on twitter mentions Interview with ACM

Shares Magazine ‏@SharesMag 3m
Also in today's new Shares - Scots vote winners & losers; re-appraising AstraZeneca, biotech sector report & a big interview with Accumuli

[boadicea] 05/6/2014 08:44

The share price looks nicely stable around the 27p level and ready for advance on the next piece of good news. The mid-May profit-taking was well absorbed as punters appear in a mood to add on any such retrace. (Well I was grateful, anyway! Could we have another one, please?)

[hastings] 04/6/2014 12:55

Nice post rivaldo. I would hope for a nice run ahead of the results now.Should be catching up with management afterwards too.

[rivaldo] 04/6/2014 11:34

ACM have issued their own 10 point guide to beating the cyber attack - and of course plug their own solutions:



NCA Cyber Attack 'two week' Warning
Tuesday 3rd June 2014

The National Crime Agency is warning users they have 'two weeks' to protect themselves against a powerful cyber-attack (read the full article here):

Two pieces of malware software known as Gameover Zeus and CryptoLocker are at the centre of the alert.

The Challenge:

etc"

[vasilis] 03/6/2014 09:01

riv,

This is a good summary of the GameOverZeus botnet -


Essentially, it's another one of those infections which occur when a user opens a dodgy e-mail attachment. Therefore whilst this particular issue is specifically in the hands of the NCA and FBI, I am quite sure that this latest botnet attack re-enforces the increasing urgency for the business security offerings that ACM supplies.

[igoe104] 03/6/2014 08:31

Yes, them 700 customers could easily go to thousands of customers.

[rivaldo] 03/6/2014 07:49

Loads of headline stories in the media yesterday and today about the "Gameover Zeus" or Cryptolocker virus affecting businesses and individuals - must be good for business at ACM.

[rivaldo] 01/6/2014 18:15

Cheers cho332, that's a good plug.

[igoe104] 29/5/2014 13:44

Lots more in the upside for acm share price, any company that says the words rapidly growing in their last RNS are a strong buy.



(Accumuli is a leading, rapidly growing,)

[rivaldo] 28/5/2014 22:58

Intriguing late buys of 357,000 at 27.33p and 250,000 at 27.25p. Hopefully bodes well for tomorrow.

[seans66] 28/5/2014 21:37

Great presentation on internet trends:



Check out page 18, cyber security trends. This market is already big but its going to be massive.

[nigel_s] 28/5/2014 14:42

Thanks rivaldo

[rivaldo] 28/5/2014 11:03

News item which has just appeared on the ACM web site despite being dated April - note that they describe themselves as "the UK's leading DDI specialist":



"IDC DDI Market Update
Tuesday 15th April 2014

In its new report, "Worldwide DDI Market Update", IDC highlights that many enterprises have still not deployed a DDI solution - "IDC survey data suggests that the penetration of enterprise grade DDI solutions is low relative to the total addressable market - out of 1,200 enterprises of 1,000+ employees surveyed; only 26.5% had implemented an enterprise-grade DDI solution."

These statistics reinforce our view that many enterprises still don't fully understand the risks and issues that they are being exposed to by failing to implement an enterprise-grade solution for these "Core Network Services". DDI or (DNS, DHCP and IP Address Management) are "Core Network Services" because they underpin the operation of enterprise networks and if they fail or are compromised then organisations are likely to suffer significant financial and reputational damage.

Many organisations are still unaware of the growing risks of DNS attacks and the increasing complexity of DDI, driven by the adoption of technology such as BYOD, Virtualisation, Cloud and IPv6. These technologies are driving significant growth in numbers of IP addresses and connected devices as well as increasing rates of change and diversity.

IDC has also tackled one of the biggest myths seen in the DDI market-place - "While Microsoft provides basic DNS and DHCP services, it does not offer a fully functional, integrated DDI solution." – This is very important as it highlights that whilst Microsoft provides a DNS and DHCP service, even with Windows Server 2012 it still lacks the functionality needed in the enterprise marketplace, particularly when it comes to security and audit driven requirements.

IDS also noted that "As DDI becomes more complex, ad hoc approaches like these likely will not be sufficient to meet the security, management and control challenges facing IT."

This is where Accumuli can help reduce the risks and help to secure your business; As the UK's leading DDI specialist and as an Infoblox Elite Partner, we have over 15 years of experience in helping organisations manage their Core Network Services securely and reliably."

[nigel_s] 22/5/2014 17:18

Thanks rivaldo: I like this bit ......

"the management team's future strategy is to focus on delivering increasing levels of organic, cash generative growth rather than to become overly reliant upon acquisition led growth"

[rivaldo] 22/5/2014 15:25

The Unicorn AIM VCT own almost £1.3m of ACM shares, and in this week's results had a nice summary of their views on ACM - note the EXTREMELY high recurring income:



"Accumuli (+39%) is a leading, rapidly growing, UK-based independent specialist in IT security. In the half year period to 30 September 2013 revenues grew by 23% to £7.7m (H1 2012: £6.3m), gross profit was 28% higher at £4.5m (H1 2012: £3.5m) while group EBITDA rose 7% to £1.1m (H1 2012: £1.0m). Importantly, Accumuli's global customer base is increasingly diverse, consisting of companies of all sizes across an expanding range of industry sectors, including financial services, utilities, telecommunications, manufacturing and government. Accumuli enjoys high levels of repeat business from its existing customers. Almost two thirds of gross profits are generated from recurring revenues earned on managed service or support contracts that have a typical term of twelve months or more. Having built out a comprehensive range of IT security related services, the management team's future strategy is to focus on delivering increasing levels of organic, cash generative growth rather than to become overly reliant upon acquisition led growth. Accumuli ended the period with £3.6m in net cash balances (30 September 2012: £1.5m). "