Advice for Darktrace: don’t complain, just explain

When trust is everything the best way to respond is to opt for full exposure and elaborate explanation

Advice for cybersecurity firm Darktrace as it finds itself under attack from short-sellers: don't rely on airy nothing to see here" statements. If you want to shore up investors' confidence when a New York hedge fund is questioning your accounting in a lengthy report, you usually have to get into the gritty business of point-by-point rebuttal.

Darktrace's response on Tuesday to an outfit called Quintessential Capital Management fell into the boilerplate category. The company said it had full confidence" in its accounting practices and financial statements, and that its board and management take their fiduciary responsibilities very seriously". All standard stuff, in other words.