Consulting lameness, RE: Information on Raptor

[BGrubin () SCIENT COM (Ben Grubin)]

Argh.  This sucks, so I have to comment.

You are at least as bad by saying it is one of the best choices--and not
backing it up, as the other "evil consultants" are by saying various
vendors' products are flawed in some fundamental way, with equally little
justification.

Most security consultants seem to have found out that the best way to
ingratiate themselves with customers is to levy opinions that the customers
do not have the depth of knowledge to understand, and therefore appear that
the opinion is in fact correct (and supported) by virtue of the customer not
being able to ask the right questions.  The truth of the matter is these
same consultants rarely have the depth to understand the opinion they are
levying anyhow.  It's a total farce.

Cheers,
Ben

---
Benjamin P. Grubin                 / bgrubin () scient com - PGP key available
Infrastructure/Security Architect / mobile (617) 513-5978 fax (617) 585-3230
Scient -- Be Legendary           / http://www.scient.com/  ticker://SCNT

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marcelo Amaral - ALTAVISTA.NET
> [mailto:marcelo.amaral () ALTAVISTA NET]
> Sent: Monday, February 21, 2000 3:22 PM
> To: VULN-DEV () SECURITYFOCUS COM
> Subject: Re: Information on Raptor
>
>
> I agree that these consultants are so unprofessional. Axent Raptor is,
> today, one of the best choice in Firewall Systems. By the
> way, a Firewall's
> bad configuration may cause vulnerability. Maybe the problem,
> in this case,
> isn't hardware or software, but peopleware (the consultants).
>
> regards
>
> Marcelo Amaral, marcelo.amaral () altavista net
> Network Consultant
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Yiorgos Adamopoulos [SMTP:adamo () DBLAB ECE NTUA GR]
> Sent: Monday, February 21, 2000 12:19 PM
> To: VULN-DEV () SECURITYFOCUS COM
> Subject: Re: Information on Raptor
>
> On Sun, 20 Feb 2000 15:23:02 -0500 Martin M Samson
> <marti () VIDEOTRON CA>
> wrote:
>
>
> > We've been told (by consultants) that this type of firewall has
> > many flaws.
>
> Assuming you have paid the above consultants to do an
> evaluation for you, it
> is
> their responsibility to tell you what the flaws are.  In any
> other case they
> are simply irresponsible.
>
> I have not used Raptor in my life, but having a "consultant"
> say this to a
> customer without backing up / demonstrating the claim is very
> unprofessionalistic
> --
> Yiorgos Adamopoulos, adamo () ieee org