Corsa boosts its programmable switch system offerings

Verizon DBIR draws controversy

Eric Parizo, an analyst with Current Analysis Inc., in Sterling, Va., wrote about the controversy regarding this year's Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR). This year's list of the top 10 vulnerabilities has drawn criticism from security experts for reportedly overhyping the risks of a FREAK exploit. Security experts contend FREAK is virtually impossible to exploit without National Security Agency-level supercomputing and requires an earlier exploit to complete a man-in-the-middle attack.

Parizo said he believes the controversy will reduce confidence in Verizon's reporting and indicates data-driven security research is far from a panacea for breaches. "It's a great irony that even though we live in the Information Age, truly insightful, elucidating information is harder than ever to discern. The constant bombardment of data, both raw and manipulated, makes it nearly impossible to trust data at face value," Parizo said. "The lesson for researchers and vendors alike is that data-driven security research should not only be a drive to develop conclusions, but should also foster discussion and collaboration," he added.

Dig deeper into Parizo's thoughts on Verizon DBIR.

Creating a marketing technology lingua franca

Melissa Parrish, an analyst with Forrester Research, said she sees a need for greater collaboration as organizations move from an IT agenda to a business technology agenda, with many making that shift suffering miscommunications. "One of the reasons for this miscommunication is that marketers and technologists often use very common words differently."

According to Parrish, a miscommunication took place at Forrester during a meeting of marketing and technology analysts -- analysts couldn't always decipher different acronyms. When one group said CRM, the other was left guessing whether it stood for customer relationship management or change request management.

Parrish said she sees three key communication problems: different meanings for words, multiple meanings for words -- such as agile -- and different cases where a word is applied. "Never assume that everyone is on the same page with even the most banal language," Parrish said. "The best collaborators will establish definitions -- that take into account the particular context in which that language will be used -- for their company, for projects and even in individual meetings," she added.

Look more into Parrish's thoughts on meaning in business communications.