Network World has an interesting story this week about the profusion of security surveys and all the confusion it’s creating in the market. The premise is that security companies use research to sell products and services and the corresponding flood of data actually obfuscates rather than clarifies what’s going on in the market.

It’s a clever idea and well done piece, though I think NWW stopped short of doing what could have been a more interesting investigation. Someone should go to these security companies and ask them to give up the full results of their research and then analyze what didn’t get published. Factoids from vendor market research can be like movie review excerpts trumpeted in advertising: the full story is far less interesting or could even be contradictory to the snippet of data that the public sees. Even if the results of such an investigation weren’t blockbuster news, it would be interesting to see what gets left on the cutting room floor and which vendors choose not to cooperate. Maybe someone will do that story.