I attended a live tech event last week on the timely topics of Security, Mobility, Wireless and IP Telephony. Microsoft and Intel were the lead sponsors of the event, but for some obscure reason did not bother to show up.
Symantec gave a very good presentation on security, they have a great website where you can go and check to see if you are infected.
Cisco gave three presentations, networking hardware is their domain, but now they are also selling Security and IP Telephony. The Security talk was your typical worst case scenario, evil programmers, delinquent teens, and bad Microsoft software. After listening about all the layers of security Cisco would like to sell me to protect me from me clicking on attachments, I had to raise my hand and implore; “after all we have been through, ILOVEYOU, SLAMMER, MYDOOM, why don’t we just stop idiots from clicking on attachments”. The Cisco spokesman was offended that I would use the word “idiots” in mixed company (salesmen and customers). Had Microsoft been represented, they could have spoken about Windows XP SP2 and Group Policy in Active Directory.
The last talk of the day by Cisco was on IP Telephony, what made this remarkable for me was that we were fifty yards from Intel’s Dialogic office!