The BOMdotcom (It’s Not What You Think It Is)

Sunday Brand Wagon Blog — Cyber Edition

So I’m sitting in a client meeting the other day when someone casually drops the word BOM into the conversation — and suddenly I’m Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents yelling, “What? You can’t say BOM on a plane!!” 😉

Except in cybersecurity, not only can you say it…You must.

Because if there’s one thing this industry loves — besides acronyms, frameworks, and arguing on LinkedIn — it’s a good BOM. 💣

Why BOMs Are the Real Plot Twist in Cyber

If you’ve been anywhere near a SOC, a vendor call, or a “quick alignment meeting” that somehow becomes a two-hour therapy session, you know this truth:

Cyber has no shared language.
Everyone thinks their definition is the definition.

Enter BOM — Bill of Materials.
Except now it comes in flavors:

• SBOM (Software Bill of Materials)
• HBOM (Hardware Bill of Materials)
• AI BOM (because of course)
• PBOM (Philosophical Bill of Materials — I’m kidding, but honestly, we’re not far off)

We’ve reached BOM-flation.

But beneath the alphabet soup is a real problem:
Every single BOM is a potential source of exploitation if we don’t get aligned on what it means, what goes in it, and who’s responsible for keeping it accurate.

The BOM Problem Nobody Wants to Admit

Repeat after me: An incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent BOM is basically a VIP guest pass for attackers.

If your SBOM is missing open-source components?
If your HBOM doesn’t reflect last month’s supply-chain swap?
If your AI model BOM includes mystery data lineage that “someone will document eventually”?

BOMs are supposed to provide transparency.
Instead, many are becoming Franken-lists stitched together across teams who aren’t speaking the same language.

So, Why Is A Marketer Talking About This?
(HINT: ACTION REQUESTED)

At the risk of stepping out of my lane, I’d like to suggest that we stop treating BOMs like a compliance checkbox and start treating them like the security-critical artifacts they are.

Here’s the Brand Wagon take on a more secure way forward:

1. Pick a BOM Governance Owner (Yes, an Actual Human)

Not “shared responsibility.”
Not “we’ll all pitch in.”

Name a BOM Boss.
Give them authority and a budget.
Give them therapy, if necessary. Because the governance buzzword has its own issues...sorta like a gym membership.
Everyone agrees they should have it, they say they have it, but ask them to show proof and suddenly they’re “between frameworks right now.” But I digress…

2. Standardize the Format — Then Guard It Like the Crown Jewels

If three teams contribute three different BOM formats, congrats, you now have zero usable BOMs.

One format. One source of truth. Repeat after me: ONE.

3. Automate Everything That Humans Will Absolutely Forget

Component tracking? Automate.
Versioning? Automate.
Vulnerability mapping? You guessed it: automate.

Automation is not a dirty word when leveraged correctly.

4. Integrate BOM Data Into Risk Decisions — Not Just Documentation

A BOM is only valuable when it feeds:

• Threat exposure mapping
• Supply chain risk quantification
• Patch prioritization
• Architecture decisions

If your BOM is living in a lonely SharePoint folder, it’s not a BOM. It’s a scrapbook. Back to that don't treat it like a compliance checkbox.

5. Make BOM Conversations Normal — Not Niche

If the CFO, CEO, and Board don’t know what a BOM is…
Fix that.

If the engineering team thinks an SBOM is “nice to have”…
Fix that.

If marketing thinks BOM is a flight risk word…Okay, honestly, that one’s fair.

Why This Matters for 2026 and Beyond

The future of cyber regulation — and cyber resilience — is moving toward traceability, transparency, and verifiable lineage. BOMs are critical.

Final Thought (and a Little Snark Because It’s Sunday)

Cyber may never align on the perfect framework.
We may never settle the “is it cyber-resilience or cybersecurity” debate.
And someone, somewhere, will always be inventing a new acronym we didn’t ask for.

But BOM?
If we treat it right, BOM might just be the one thing that creates common ground.

Because whether you’re a CISO, a DevOps lead, a risk quant nerd, or a tired marketing whisperer writing a Sunday blog…

💥 A good BOM is truly the BOMB. 💥

#cybermarketing #BOMIsTheBOMB 🎤

P.S. BOM is the BOMB makes my brain also go down the rabbit hole of Bird is the Word. But that's another blog for another Sunday...😆