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

Today's CISOs operate in an overly intensive environment.

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 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 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) 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.

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