All the world needs is another security expert - and I am one of them! ...

I do not know how you get your news, via telegraph, smoke signals or the sound of distant drums. I have long formed the habit of using social media as a tool to harvest 'what is current' from the interweb.

With this comes many pros - as I am often more up to date than those relying on traditional channels. But there are many cons as I have to curate the twaddle that comes from souls I have selected over the years and then rejected based on their output.

Before you say it - I am sure that there are plenty who view my own musings as mere piffle - not that I am particularly worried what others think. Yet, over time, in my jaundiced way I have started notionally categorising the articles I read into a collection of generic categories. 

Scaremongers - fools who jump on people's misunderstanding of security and technology in general, add a dash of their own carefully acquired ignorance and then set about to cause mayhem. 

Flatulists - the promoters of a given product suite; technological solution or consultancy service. Instead of helping others solve the problem for themselves they employ smug rhetoric to promote rather than support.

Myopic - incapable of seeing the bigger picture; these souls focus on an aspect of the security problem that has nothing to do with the issue at large.

Homeopath - they are so wrong, that the homeopathic society have distanced themselves from their musings on security. Their advice is akin to wearing a garlic necklace as the best caution in network security management.

Ok, let us stop it here, I am sure you could easily devise your own categories based entirely on some of the dander you have read. Fortunately the majority of network security experts, professionals and wannabes know what they are doing and can self select. Sadly many of the public and those learning our profession (as well as some teaching the subject) - get the wrong idea. Which leads to further confusion and chaos.

If you (like I) are a writer of anything anywhere on security - please feel free to use this article as a helpful guide on what you should avoid. After all, all the world needs is another security expert!

Originally published on LinkedIn.