BreachBytes

New Years is a time of reflection and preparation: reflection on the year ending and preparation for the year beginning. This year I thought I would share my New Years resolutions as they relate to my job as a security vendor:

1. Go easy on the jargon. I will do my best not to say “IDS” and “PCI” and instead say “Intrusion Detection System” and “Payment Card Industry”.
2. Be straightforward. Customers don’t have much spare time and I will do a better job of getting to the point. I will tell customers what they need to know and nothing more.
3. Give users tools they want. Flashy interfaces may sell initially but what makes products stick is utility. I will focus on making software that makes security analysts more effective in their jobs.

Basically, I need to help users understand how our products improve the security of their enterprise and put useful tools in the hands of security analysts. Resolution #1 will be realized on January 21, 2008 when my company, Packet Analytics, launches a free download of our network forensic search engine, Net/FSE. Resolutions #2 and #3 will continue to be realized throughout the year as we engage security analysts.

With a little luck, 2008 will be a better year for the security industry than 2007 where we saw record numbers of network breaches. Security vendors are partially to blame for this as we have not been effective in conveying to our customers the importance of investing in network security, both in terms of products and personnel. I challenge other security vendors to adopt my New Year’s Resolutions and make 2008 the year the security industry gets its act together.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 9:26 am and is filed under network security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.