“Extrusion” Prevention?!?!

Every once in a while, I hear a marketing term that stops me in my tracks for one reason or another. This is one of those times. Maybe I’m out of the loop on this one, but have you heard about “extrusion prevention” yet? Seriously – extrusion.

Here’s the back-story: back in 2004, Danny Lieberman came up with “extrusion” as a concept for information leaving a company in contrast to “intrusion”. It’s a clever way to grab a reader’s attention if you’re a journalist, so props to Danny. Since the original coining of the term, various product vendors like Fidelis and Datamation have picked it up and run with it to the point that now we have papers being written about “extrusion prevention” and “buyers guides for extrusion prevention.”

Now, don’t get me wrong – these are probably good products, and I’m sure they’re useful. My only issue here is with the continued use of “extrusion” as the catch-word – maybe we ought to start considering the literal definition of a term before borrowing it for marketing purposes. Take a look at the literal definition. Not pleasant; consider:

compacting… and forcing… through an orifice

Outward displacement of the contents of an organ.

squeezing out by applying pressure

Eww. Can we, as an industry, please have a moritorium on marketing terms that are literally defined as “squeeze forcibly through an orifice?” I don’t particularly like the organ reference either.