Making sense of the media.
Mike Rothman had a good rant today about the big tech media players. I have so much already to read and do that I have no time to peruse general tech publications any more, unless they relate to security or I get led there on a particular topic from somewhere else. Even my free publications like Information Security Magazine pile up on my desk and gather dust.
So what’s up with the paid report sector? I admit it’s been many years since I worked for a place that could afford analyst subscriptions like Gartner. I still get a few reports and quasi-freebies handed to me, though, and I still don’t get the value added there. As far as I can tell, they’re all writing either for executives who want to go on a spending spree and need to know what else to buy, or they’re writing for vendors in the space who want to know what their competition is doing (and whether they’re getting better publicity). Every time I’ve seen a quartile chart, it only told me things I already knew. Am I just keeping up better than I think by reading free stuff on the web, or are these paid reports not worth the simoleons? Are there any tech publications that really distinguish themselves? and if so, how? Do any of them really go to 11?
Maybe it’s product and FUD fatigue. I’m tired of reading about the latest and greatest software/appliance/gateway/acquisition/merger. I’m tired of reading about the same security headlines over and over again. Even the exploit sites are starting to blur in my mind. When Microsoft releases 26 patches in one fell swoop, how is anyone supposed to pay sufficient attention to understand each one of them?
I’m not even a tech-illiterate manager; I was informed just today that I allegedly have a “massive clue.“ (Of course, that might just have been an attempt to butter me up in advance of a performance review.) If I’ve got report fatigue, what must it be like for others? I can understand how any executive who hasn’t spent years in the security realm could get overwhelmed by the media and just want to bury her head in the sand.
What is the well-dressed ISO buying this year? Security shouldn’t be about fashion, and yet that’s what it’s starting to feel like. If the crowded vendor space can’t be disambiguated, and therefore the trade mags don’t have anything new or different to say, then doesn’t it come down to which designer you like the best, and whether you have one of every accessory in your closet/server room?
I’m just waiting for the Vogue equivalent in the security world ...
Posted by shrdlu on Tuesday, October 10, 2006
(2) Comments • Permalink •
