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The Daily Incite - 11/04/08 - Get out and VOTE!
November 4, 2008 - Volume 3, #86
Good Morning:
Today is the big day. After 21 months of waiting, the suspense will be
over. Maybe. All across America people will do their civic duty and
VOTE. Though with the advent of early voting, many folks have already
cast their ballots. There will be record turnout. And I think that's a
great thing. I've already mentioned that I've become an election news
junkie. Thankfully that will all be over today and I can get back to my
regularly scheduled life. 
I remember my Mom taking me to the polling place at Grandview
Elementary when I was maybe 4. That would have been the 1972 election.
I remember walking into the booth with her (and it really looked like
the picture on the right, curtain and all), and she flipped the
switches and then pulled the lever. It was cool then, and it's cool now
- although now we press a button, as opposed to pulling the lever.
The Boss is taking our oldest to the polls (she's off from school) and
I think it'll be a great experience for her. Amazingly enough, her and
her 7 and 8 year old friends talk about politics. They've said some
funny things about the candidates, that they must hear from their
parents. Evidently those kids do listen to our adult conversation. Got
to keep that in mind.
A lot of folks have asked me why I've been so immersed in the election.
Sure, I'm one of the 80% or so that don't approve of the current
administration. I'm also one of the 95% that think the US is moving in
the wrong direction. But that's not it. I thought the same way in 2004
and wasn't nearly as engaged.
It's because I have finally realized how long 8 years is, and how
important a decision this is. 8 years ago, almost to the day, my oldest
daughter was born. She was just days old when the 2000
election happened. And now I look at her, and she's a person. I realize
that 8 years is in fact a lifetime (for her anyway).
But enough politics. Get out and vote today if you can. I don't care
who you vote for, just remember that a lot of folks continue to fight
and die for our freedom and voting is the best way to both honor their
memory and make a difference. Yes, every vote counts.
Have a great day. And if you are an American citizen, get your ass to a
polling place and vote (if you haven't already).
PS: I took some time off last week, as Alan so kindly noticed. It has
nothing to do with my new job or my ability to continue Inciting a few
times a week. I guess my only mistake was not showing my note to the
hall monitor. Read Alan's post, it's funny.
Photo: "60's-tastic" originally uploaded by msmail
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Incite 4U
One of the advantages of taking a week off is that there is
plenty of stuff to cover when you get back. That is after I spent
yesterday on the road and wading through my overflowing inbox. So
basically today's interesting stuff is broken up into two sections, a
variety of things that happened last week, and a special "earnings
watch" section since many of the public security companies announced
their earnings last week.
- IT security spending not darkened by economic gloom?
Really? I guess according to the folks that NetworkWorld talked to. I still
don't believe it. I recently read a survey in ChangeWave investing that
showed even the vaunted security software market is poised to contract
a bit next year (though less than everything else). I think it's
ridiculous to think that in what will likely be a fairly severe
recession that anything is "not darkened by economic gloom." Rain is
not selective folks. When it pours, everyone gets wet.
- Hoff puts a lot of the coming economic turmoil into context,
basically saying a lot of the doom scenario folks are fearing were
already in motion. Playing off a piece by Amrit, the Hoff makes the point
that "Times are tough. So are we." Yes, we are security folks. But that
doesn't mean we don't need to continue focusing on how to do more with
less and do that more better than before.
- Are we entering the age of whitelisting? Seltzer thinks so, and I do think
the whitelisting solutions are maturing enough to be useful. I've been
a big fan of whitelisting for quite a while, but also understand that
it's a feature. It's another defense mechanism to make things work
better. It's not in lieu of other methods of detection, it's to
supplement what we already do. If we keep that context in order, I
think whitelisting has a bright future.
- If you can't beat them, join them. Webroot finally rolls a full consumer
security suite to take on the Big Yellow, Little Red and the
other 7 dwarfs of AV. Of course, even the smallest of dwarfs is bigger
than the ENTIRE DLP market. But that's another story, for another day.
- This guy can break your stuff. Interesting
interview from Dennis Fisher with the guy from that Tiger Team TV show.
Remember, these guys can get into your network. The question is how
easily and how can you pick off the lowest hanging fruit. And also to
remember to test your stuff. Guys like Chris Nickerson can do it
proactively, or bad guys in foreign lands can do it also. You tell me
how you want your facial delivered.
- Azure sounds like something I want to put in a shot glass,
but it's really Microsoft's cloud computing umbrella.
The point is not about whether cloud computing will happen. It's about
how you think about protecting your information when that information
is no longer within the walls of your enterprise. It's happened already
(salesforce.com, anyone?), and once Word and Excel don't suck in a
hosted version, it's going to happen a lot more. Most security folks
have basically stuck their head in the sand. That's not going to be an
option for too much longer.
- I read yesterday that airline traffic is approaching
post-9/11 levels. That's not good for the airline industry, though I
seem to be keeping them afloat single-handedly. NetApp uses that excuse as a reason to
cancel their user conference. Regardless of the reason, it's
time to start thinking about how to collaborate more effectively in a
remote context. "Virtual trade shows" have pretty much sucked to date,
but I expect a lot of innovation in that space. Because it's becoming
less cost effective every day to pack up the 20x20 and head off to a
show to stand around with 100 vendors. Conference organizers take note.
There is a new day dawning.
- Great explanation here by Michael Howard on how the recent out-of-cycle patches happened for Windows. This is a great example of having (and executing on) a containment strategy. Stuff is going to happen, even with the vaunted SDL on watch. Michael pinpoints how the vulnerability slipped through and what they are going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. This is the way it's supposed to work folks. Once again, we can all learn from how Microsoft handles the security of their O/S.
Earnings Watch
As mentioned above, it seems that some folks think security is immune to issues. The latest earnings results from many of the security companies indicate things are slowing, but not all bad. I guess I'm still in the pessimist camp. I speak to a lot of folks and they tell me it's slow. The Feds saved a number of public company's bacon in this last Q and I certainly hope that continues. Though I'm not betting on it.
-
- Websense announces a good Q3. They expect it to continue. (release) (earnings transcript)
- Check Point also announces a good quarter at the upper
range of guidance. (release)
- SonicWALL announces mediocre numbers and folks have to
start wondering when they'll be put out of their misery either by an
aggregator or by private equity. Oh yeah, like private equity funds can
raise any debt nowadays. Not so much. (release) (transcript)
- Secure Computing announces numbers as well. A slight GAAP
decrease, but soon it will be McAfee's problem... (release)
- Speaking of McAfee, they show a strong quarter. I guess
DeWalt is still picking the low hanging fruit of years of poor
execution. Though they showed strength in places like IPS and remain
upbeat for the coming year. (release) (earnings call)
- Symantec announces a decent quarter but disappointing
guidance and some layoffs, evidently they are not immune to the global
economic malaise. Or is it still an execution problem? Or are they just
being more honest than everyone else. (release) (earnings call)
- Sourcefire's new regime seems to be picking some of that
low hanging fruit. Though they are still losing money, if revenue goes
up (McAfee also announce strong IPS sales) they can stabilize the ship.
(release)
- The rest: Zix (release), VASCO (earnings call), Entrust (earnings call)
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