New Comic Videos Take CISO/Security Vendor Relationship to the Extreme

As the ones who are tasked with the unenviable accountability
for failed protection and successful breaches, they must
relentlessly strive to improve their defense lines with workforce
education, training their security teams and last but definitely
not least — looking for products that will upgrade and adjust their
security against the rapidly evolving threat landscape.

Finding the right solution is everything but an easy task. Part
of what makes it hard is the tremendous number of security vendors
that offer an infinite number of security products, promising that
each can solve all the cyber problems of the planet with one hand
tied behind its back.

These CISO/vendor encounters are the theme of six short
humoristic videos^[1]
released this week that take them to the ultimate extreme. Here is
one of the videos:

If you want, you can watch all 6 funny videos here.

These videos were partly inspired by David Spark’s excellent
30 Security Vendor
Behaviors That Set Off a CISO’s BS Detector^[3]
article, in which various CISOs state which security vendors’
claims they find most irritating.

Unsurprisingly, most are related to absolutes, superlatives,
buzzwords (AI and machine learning lead the list), and stating the
obvious — basically, the toolset of an accomplished marketing and
sales team.

While the ‘BS detector’ article portrays a rather authentic
description, there is another side to the equation—sure, vendors
make a lot of noise, but it’s not like they have a real choice.

After all, how many of the CISOs that groaned over superlatives
and cure-all claims would have scheduled a meeting with the vendor
that says, ‘I have a fair enough solution that might, under certain
circumstances, contribute something to your security posture?’

So, as in many other cases, there are good cases for both
sides.

The encounters between CISOs and security vendors are the theme
of six humoristic short videos (to access the videos click
here^[4]) that take them to the
ultimate extreme, portraying a set of security vendor behaviors
that can easily qualify to be the CISO’s nightmare…

The vendor that lurks everywhere, pushing his offering; the
vendor that makes absurd promises; the vendor that does everything
except deliver malware protection, and so on.

Interestingly, the videos were not shot — as one might expect —
by a frustrated, raging CISO who is tired of being pestered, but by
an actual security vendor that apparently is confident enough to
laugh at the common mistakes the overly-enthusiastic vendors
(including they themselves) are making.

So we strongly recommend to sit back and watch.

If you’re a CISO, you can rejoice in knowing that you are not
alone on the run to get away from security vendors.

If you’re a security vendor sales guy, ask yourself how close
this parody comes to your actual day-to-day routine.

And if you’re neither, simply enjoy a good laugh.

^[2]