Snake Oil Cycle
I've done a presentation a couple times now at a 2019 OWASP meeting and originally at B-Sides Las Vegas in 2018.
Abstract
The security industry can feel like it's a trip through a night market full of dubious characters offering even more questionable products. The easy answer is to blame the shadowy characters confronting you along the way. The better answer is more elusive, exploring dynamics of all parties involved from customers to investors and the people making and marketing the products themselves. Using stories to illustrate the many characters involved, we'll paint a full picture of the security market and propose ways in which we can make it less of walk down dark alley and more like a cruise through the Sunday Farmer's Market.
The slides are here & we'll cover the topic in detail in a future podcast on Security Voices w/ Thinkst's CEO, Haroon Meer.