We get pitches at least once a week from companies that pay research companies to write a report that remarkably validates that what the sponsoring company says about their product or services. Some of the information is just marketing content, often wrong or outdated, and what isn’t is nothing new. But these companies invest a large part of the marketing budget into producing these reports so their PR folks don’t take no for an answer when asking if I want to cover their “news.”
Recently, A survey from Telesign featured opening bullets that made us laugh at loud with the ludicrosity. We told them how laughable it was, but they REALLY wanted to do an interview. Since the subject was who is responsible for security we agreed.
It turned out to be a good thing. I met with the company’s chief marketing officer, Kristi Melani, and started off talking about how ludicrous the first bullet point was, which she took with good humor. The rest of the conversation revolved around how companies and customers can more easily take appropriate responsibility for security.
You might have heard about Telesign and if not, in about a month you may hear more. They belong to a diverse security market niche that includes providers of multi-factor authentication (MFA), password managers, passkey technology among a few. The goal of these companies is to make the job of protecting user data easier for the user. What she had to say, people need to hear.
Lou Covey is the Chief Editor for Cyber Protection Magazine. In 50 years as a journalist he covered American politics, education, religious history, women’s fashion, music, marketing technology, renewable energy, semiconductors, avionics. He is currently focused on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. He published a book on renewable energy policy in 2020 and is writing a second one on technology aptitude. He hosts the Crucial Tech podcast.