You keep using that word...

A few weeks ago I found myself at a vendor presentation by a well-known physical security vendor. I was looking forward to the discussion on "advanced video analytics" and other cutting edge developments. Unfortunately, this was a pure sales pitch... and the "advanced technology" was primarily focused on how this vendor could help scale the customers' security camera video storage by placing it on a "secure server in the cloud."

I was quiet up to this point in the presentation. But, I had to ask: "What do you mean by, a 'secure server' in the cloud?" The room got a little quieter. The sales guy, his pace interrupted, looked at me with complete sincerity and said: "I mean we secure it for you."

I didn't think he meant that he, himself, was hardening the OS and running assessments against it. Even so, with security cameras and alarms as their forte, I couldn't understand how it made sense for anyone at his company to provide such a service.

The morale of this story is: Question everything.

I would never trust my security camera video data to a company storing it in the cloud -- at least not until I had a chance to check it thoroughly (yes, myself). Believe me, I've recently checked other products thoroughly and found them -- let's just say -- not quite meeting expectations.