Blast from the Past: Why Vendor Hype Benefits No One

The other day while starting work on a post about why hype is never a good marketing strategy when I remembered, “hey! I already wrote about this.” Since the information is still relevant today, we decided to make the piece available again.

Many thanks to Carol Baroudi, Founder of Baroudi Group, Inc. for kind permission to reprint this document.

Software and technology vendors, especially those in the United States, have gotten into the habit of overselling the capabilities of their products in an effort to close deals. While this is an annoying practice for non-security related products, it can be downright dangerous when it’s applied to the products that enterprises rely on to protect their assets. The issue is so serious that the government has stepped in. On August 8, 2002 the FTC ruled that Microsoft had misstated the security of their Passport product.
Timothy Muris, FTC Chairman said, “Privacy and security promises must be kept. It’s good business. It’s the law, and we’ll take action against companies that do not keep their promises.” Security vendors that overstate the ability of their solutions can lead to enterprises installing inferior systems that don’t work as advertised. And the use of inferior products can translate into security vulnerabilities and costly exploits and attacks. How bad can it get?…

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