Fearfully Yours

by Mark Wheeler, Technology & Business

Everyone loves ABC TV’s media watch until they’re on it—so the saying goes—and on July 10, IT journalism got some attention. IT vendor’s commonly commission research (or conduct it themselves) and publish this as part of the promotion of their business or product, and the case that caught Media Watch’s attention was a survey commissioned buy an IT security vendor that revealed just how concerned the Australian public is with protecting their personal details and credit-card information—apparently slightly more than we are concerned by terrorism.

The research was published in a number of articles around the place, and interestingly it sparked quite a bit of discussion within “IT journo” circles—I might add, all very healthy, concerned and considered.

Obviously, any vendor may employ statistics to support the argument for their service or product, and these supporting stats can be distilled from any number of sources.

Fear is a great motivator and IT, of course, would not be the only sector which is vulnerable to this kind of strategy. I’m sure plenty of new parents find themselves the owners of all sorts of new toys and learning products designed to make sure precious gets the very best start in life.

Like a parent minding their child, security is clearly an important issue for any business. It certainly requires careful planning and diligent execution, but security marketing naturally plays to our fears.

The news pages are frequently occupied with spectacular examples of security breaches and damage wrought by spyware, scams and viruses. It has served to keep our attention mindful of the perils of the Internet. Vendors, of course, have the remedy—and there are a vast number of both start-ups and established players in the security business.

One piece of marketing literature making rounds recently explains that the first Mac viruses were noted this year, and although they were all innocuous “proof of concept” examples, we’re clearly being told it’s the time to buy. Macs are no longer safe.

Security on this platform is something that will presumably become more prevalent as the Mac’s popularity grows, and there is plenty of Mac-impassioned debate in the various online communities and forums as to the genuine relevance of any sort of security software at this stage. Nevertheless, vendors are already on it.

Removable storage is also getting a workout at the moment. This is a new frontier for security— important information can easily be removed on a USB memory key. There are a huge number of vendors out there spruiking solutions for locking down and tracking USB ports and the like. This sort of danger can certainly bite you, and no one would question the usefulness of some of these, but it does make you wonder how on earth did we use to cope back in the days of the floppy disk? Gosh we were cavalier back then!

The statistics vendors provide can be pretty compelling, and so the sensible CIO would no doubt be battening down ports and carefully explaining to all the designers just why they will now need anti-virus software on their Mac. But does this whole situation not resemble a bit of a mini-bubble?

There is a lot of hype, and a lot of people getting in on the act, and as the IT journo fraternity has been reminded, you need to not only be careful of what you buy, but what you believe. Fear is not a rational emotion.

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