Rothman appeals to the baser instincts in security pros

Its been way too long since I got into it with my friend Mike Rothman. Frankly since he became a vendor again I have been going easy on him, even though there were a few times I was tempted to write a thing or two about what he wrote.  Lately Mike has taken from reporting on the news with his own view thrown in, to ranting about what ever topic tickles his fancy.  Personally, I like it better when Mike reports on the news, instead of trying to make the news.

Today Mike tells us that for the security practitioner, desperate times call for desperate measures. Forget trying to sell the value of security. Forget showing the positives in having a security environment.  Mike says his years and years of being in the security industry fighting that fight were ineffective.  Fall back to go old fashioned FUD.  Plain and simple sell fear.  What ever happened to when the going gets tough, the tough get going? What about the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?  Come on Mike say it ain’t so.  Have a few months of being back in the vendor world turned you into a FUD whore? 

Mike makes the point that the life insurance companies have been selling FUD forever and are much smoother at it then security folks. He is right the life insurance industry is much smoother at it.  Then again so is the car insurance industry.  The key is they have a velvet glove over the fist. They also sell their advantage over other insurance companies.  Better service, cheaper price, more stability. Security professionals need to “sell” the necessity of security.  This has been true in good times and bad.  The lowest common denominator is FUD.  But the really successful security folks will rise up above the FUD and deliver a message of value, wrapping the velvet glove around the fist.  Mike with all of your experience I am surprised you would advocate bag diving so quickly!

To make matters worse, I commented on Mike’s blog about this and he responded with a particularly vindictive retort about it always being all about me anyway.  I guess Mike was having a bad day selling SEIM.  Anyway, how is one supposed to know that you are not talking about security vendors in your incite piece Mike.  I see you didn’t miss the chance to mention that you also blog on the eIQ blog as well about “business issues”.  Yes you have made that clear by the many links back to the eIQ blog over the last several weeks.  But then again my friend, it is never all about YOU or is it ;-)