This ain't no bloggin' booth babe!

I was talking to an analyst the other day and the security bloggers network and meet up at RSA came up. In talking about it the analyst asked me if I knew anything about the "hot blond blogger chick that everyone was talking about". At first I didn't know who he was talking about, but soon I realized he meant Jennifer Jabbusch. After I stopped laughing for a while, I told the analyst that I actually found JJ's blog a while ago and had written about it and become friendly with her ever since. I told him that I met Jennifer in person a week or so ago, and believe me she may be blond, but she ain't no dummy and knows her stuff both technically and from a business perspective. After a while I thought about it and realized what a double edged sword woman like Jennifer have to deal with. The fact that she is a woman and blond gets her attention easier than she might if she was just some guy, but is it the right attention? Do people assume that she is not somehow as sharp or as relevant? Last year I asked why the security industry had not outgrown booth babes. Today I ask why security bloggers are no better. Why do we assume because a woman is blond and not frumpy looking she must be some sort of booth babe blogger? I say bull crap to that. Maybe if Jennifer had not put her picture on her blog she would not be as popular, but would she be taken more seriously? People get with the program, JJ has a lot to say and let her words and intelligence stand on its own merit without your pre-conceived notions. Blogging has no room for booth babes!

On that note, Jennifer has a great post up today on a primer for 802.1x. I was presenting NAC to a group from a large security company this week and was frankly amazed at their lack of knowledge of what 802.1x is and how it works. They did not know where Radius ended and .1x began. I would have liked to send them this before presenting to go over as homework.