Had a short but interesting twitter exchange with @securityincite @Gillis57 and @essobi (Mike Rothman, Gillis Jones and not sure (sorry!!) respectively) about using Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt when talking IT security services. @Gillis57 initially asked, ‘Question: We discuss FUD constantly (and I agree that it’s too prominent) But isn’t security inherently built upon fear?’ I sent an ‘09 Rothman article (@securityincite said it was ‘old school’ but still has some great comments)about that very topic. Soon, @essobi chimed in with, ‘Our foundation shouldn’t be fear, it should be education. 😀 ,’ @Gillis57 responded, ‘So, look. I agree wholeheartedly, but why do people need to be educated?’ @essobi answered, ‘imo? Bad programming/exploitable logic processes. we need to raise the bar or lower expectations.’ @Gillis57 added, ‘I really don’t think we need to keep selling fear, but denying that we are a fear based industry isn’t helping.’ @securityincite wizdom’d with, ‘Fear is a tactic like anything else. Depends in situation, context, catalyst. And use sparingly.’ And I conceded that, ‘splitting hairs but I try to talk about risk rather than fear – what’s the risk if…which often generates fear.’