RE: The Future of Security

[Randy Witlicki <randy.witlicki () valley net>]

  Gary wrote:
> ..<snip>...
> Now before anyone lights the flame throwers, I think it fair to say that
> there has been a lot of poor quality work done in the past, and the
> complaints come from everywhere you look.  It is not focused on one industry
> segment, or about one firm doing the dirty deed etc.  The problem is that
> when mediocre work is performed at the fortune 500 level, the trickle down
> effect is that we all get a black eye.  So that is why I think that the
> market will force so called experts to do a better job.
> ...<snip>...

  I'm interested here about where you say "complaints come from everywhere
you look."
  From "inside" (e.g: this mailing list, the Usenix Security conference,
etc. - where the techies are found) - the perspective is that the "poor
quality" comes from things like the InfoSec division of a brand name big
accounting firm sending out an intern with a laptop loaded with ISS (or
some other security scanner) to do an audit of a client.  The network
and system administrators at the client see this and are chuckling
over their coffee or Mt. Dews about the yoo-yoo sent out to do the audit.
This is the *stereotype* of poor quality from the techie viewpoint.
  Do you think management - whose eyes glaze over when the techies walk
into the room - also think there is rampant poor quality in the Computer
Security racket ?  What drives their perceptions ?

  Yours in asking for hundreds of dollars per hour without blinking,

  - Randy
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