Sometimes its better to keep your mouth shut and let them just think you don't know what your talking about ...

You know the rest of this one right?  For those who don't, the ending goes "than to open your mouth and prove it".  It seems Seth over at Tipping Point did not like my commentary on his comments to the "dirty little NAC secrets" article. Though it seems Seth does not like to post on the Internet, he took the time to enlighten and take me to task about me revising history.  Here are Seth's comments:

Alan, I tend not to post in Internet forums for this reason, however there are a few things you have stated that are incorrect.

First, you make it painfully clear how extremely unfamiliar you are with TippingPoint's products. Second, you clearly misunderstood Roving Planet's products.

Third, you state Cisco's NAC framework was out well in advance of their 2004 acquisition of Perfigo. Cisco announced their intention to acquire Perfigo in Oct 2004 (http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2004/corp_102104.html) . They announced their NAC partner program in Dec 2004 (http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2004/prod_122004.html). They announced Clean Access and mentioned a NAC framework first in July of 2005 (http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2005/prod_071105.html) and announce expanding a Network Admission Control framework in Oct 2005 (http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2005/prod_101805.html).

You asked where was I during all this? We were partnered with Cisco in 2003-2004 and competed against Perfigo, Vernier Networks, and others when they first launched.

If you want to revise history, by all means go ahead. I wont contribute any more to this discussion.

OK, Seth now I think I know why you don't often post on the Internet. Lets have a look at where I say you are wrong and where you are right.

1. My understanding of Tipping Point's products - Seth you are right here. I only know what I have been able to gleam from your web site and collateral and what I have heard from customers who have looked at your product.  I am sure you know a lot more about it.  My only caution too often, when you are too close to something you have a tendency to believe your own PR or smoking your own dope as it is sometimes called.

2. My understanding of Roving Planet - Seth unfortunately I can't go into a lot of the details on this one.  But as a member of the Roving Planet team prior to the acquisition, you know as well as I, that being down the road from StillSecure there were plenty of opportunities for the two companies to partner and talk.  You know damn well that Tipping Point was not the only company that Roving Planet was shopped around to and there was enough due diligence done to have a great handle on the technology Roving Planet had at the time and what was under development.  I trust that this would jog your memory enough not to dispute this further, but I have the emails if need be.

3. When Cisco announced NAC.  I appreciate you bringing up the NAC partner program in December 2004.  But Seth let me not revise history and just reprint it for your benefit:

Cisco Teams with Network Associates, Symantec, and Trend Micro to Address Critical Industry Security Issues

Cisco Network Admission Control Increases Networks' Ability to Defend
Against Security Threats

SAN JOSE, Calif., November 18, 2003 - Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced the Cisco® Network Admission Control program to address the increased threat and impact of worms and viruses to networked businesses. This strategic program represents a significant step forward in industry collaboration and is part of Cisco's Self-Defending Network Initiative that helps customers identify, prevent and adapt to security threats.

"As the network continues to be a mission critical business system for organizations of all sizes, a top priority for customers is securing their information assets and minimizing the impact of viruses and worms," said John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco Systems, Inc. "Cisco's Network Admission Control program is designed to address a pervasive customer concern by helping organizations contain security threats before they
cause damage.

The Cisco Network Admission Control program was developed in conjunction with leading anti-virus software vendors including Network Associates, Symantec, and Trend Micro. This collaboration addresses the broad and growing concern among enterprise customers - the remediation costs resulting from worms and viruses.

"Recent worm and virus infections have elevated the issue of keeping insecure nodes from infecting the network and have made this a top priority for enterprises today," said Mark Bouchard, senior program director, META Group. "Many organizations were successful at stopping recent worm attacks at their Internet boundaries, yet still fell victim to the exploits when mobile or guest users connected their infected PCs directly to internal local area networks. Eliminating this type of threat will require a combination of strengthened policies and network admission control systems."

Customers using network admission control systems can allow network access only to compliant and trusted endpoint devices (for example, PCs, servers, personal digital assistants) and can restrict the access of non-compliant devices. In its initial phase, the Cisco Network Admission Control functionality enables Cisco routers to enforce access privileges when an endpoint attempts to connect to a network. This decision can be based on information about the endpoint device such as its current anti-virus state and operating system patch level. Network admission control systems allow non-compliant devices to be denied access, placed in a quarantined area, or given restricted access to computing resources. Cisco Network Admission Control systems will initially support endpoints running Microsoft Windows NT, XP and 2000 operating systems.

"The proliferation of unknown computing endpoints in the form of remote and mobile users puts our strategic information assets at increasing risk," said Lance Braunstein, chief information security officer, and executive director of Infrastructure Engineering, Morgan Stanley Individual Investor Group, a global financial services firm. "Cisco's collaboration with anti-virus software vendors will enable us to apply a consistent security policy to computers that access our network. Network admission control systems will allow us to take advantage of our existing investment in security software and network infrastructure to ensure that computers accessing our network will conform to our security
policies."

A key component of the Cisco Network Admission Control program is innovative software developed by Cisco called the Cisco Trust Agent which resides on an endpoint system and communicates with the Cisco network. The Cisco Trust Agent collects security state information from multiple security software clients, such as anti-virus clients, and communicates this information to the connected
Cisco network where access control decisions are made and enforced. Cisco has
licensed its Cisco Trust Agent technology to Network Associates, Symantec and Trend Micro so it can be integrated with their security software client
products.

The Cisco Trust Agent will also be integrated with the Cisco Security Agent
to enforce access privileges based on an endpoint's operating system patch
level. The Cisco Security Agent is Cisco's laptop/desktop and server host
intrusion prevention and distributed firewall software that identifies and
prevents malicious behavior before it can occur.

Cisco Self-Defending Network Initiative

The Cisco Network Admission Control program is a key development in the Cisco
Self-Defending Network Initiative, an innovative, multi-faceted security
strategy designed to dramatically improve the ability of networks to identify, prevent and adapt to a range of security threats. The Cisco Self-Defending
Network Initiative advances Cisco's strategy of integrating security services throughout Internet Protocol (IP) networks by delivering new system-level
network threat defense.

Network Admission Control Availability

Cisco Network Admission Control functionality is scheduled to be supported on Cisco's access and mid-range routers in mid-2004. In future releases, this capability will be extended across multiple Cisco product platforms, including switches, wireless access points and security appliances. The Cisco Trust Agent is scheduled to be integrated with both Cisco and some Cisco Network Admission
Control program supporting companies' security client software products beginning in mid-2004. Future phases of this program will extend endpoint and
network security interoperation to include infection containment capabilities. Cisco expects to open elements of the Cisco Network Admission Control program to
additional organizations in the industry as the program develops. Cisco Systems, Inc.(NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for
the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com.

# # #

Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of
their respective owners.

Notice the date Seth. I hope that proves that point for you.  Anything else?