Comments on: Who Watches the FUD Watcher?

By: Bill Brenner

Bill Brenner — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:49:50 +0000

A bit of clarification: First, your comment about my being sloppy. I wrote “theirs” instead of “them” because I was referring to their (possessive) databases. Could the sentence have been constructed better? Perhaps.
That aside, I respect, understand and appreciate your feedback. The goal of my column is to not only point out what I see as FUD, but what I see as justified attention. I call it as I see it, understanding that I may not always be right and that people will disagree with me.
To that end, I welcome you to write a guest column on CSOonline. Use it to take me to task some more if you wish. In the end, our goal is to offer a variety of viewpoints.
Take care,
Bill

By: Anon

Anon — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:18:55 +0000

Great write-up. I’m a CISO and I have a real disdain for the information security media, and I use the term “media” loosely. There are too many conflicts of interests with these trade magazines for them to have any credibility.

By: techydude

techydude — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 02:00:33 +0000

Whilst what you say is quite fair & correct, from the perspective of a 2-year Kaspersky customer (protecting exchange+server+clients) who’s also endured a configuration console that only it’s mother could possible love, and at least 2 instances of bad definitions being delivered that resulted in Windows system files critical to booting being quarantined on most of my workstations (and, with plain US-English WinXP clients it’s not like we were an obscure corner case!), and also discovering that the current version of the SPAM filter introduced the ridiculous notion of a pre-populated dumb phrase blocker burried deep within the config that was deleting heaps of legitimate emails, learning of Kaspersky’s spate of website hacks and now database leakage was simply the last straw. We’re jumping ship.

By: tranquilo

tranquilo — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:26:09 +0000

Brenner’s article spawning the “Pen Testing: dead in 2009″ meme was equally sloppy. He kept mixing Network Pen Testing with Application Pen Testing, making a mess of the whole argument.
It was good, in a way: his article was so sloppy, it prompted me to (finally) start a weblog and add my voice. Click through, you’ll find the first post in my archives similarly ripping him apart.
Perhaps I should add Brenner to my blogroll, just to keep tabs on his FUD. We all know the CSO crowd needs it.
tranq

By: Mr. X

Mr. X — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:08:56 +0000

Very nice post!