The Seamy Underbelly of Selling Cybersecurity Tech

For any technology vendor, selling to large corporations can be an exhaustive and time-consuming process. The sales cycle is incredibly long, and even getting the ear of the right executive can be nearly impossible. But a CNBC report this week shows the lengths to which some vendors will go to get the attention of top security executives in an ever-increasing and competitive marketplace.

According to the article, CNBC spoke with four cybersec experts at Fortune 500 companies and found that “all said they have been pressured by vendors and researchers who claimed—rightly or not—to have found a cybersecurity problem at their company. Some hinted at the possibility of negative news coverage if the executive did not listen to the vendor’s full pitch.”

Of course, most tech vendors undoubtedly don’t resort to such methods. But it just goes to show how competitive the technology landscape is and how difficult it can be for tech firms to get companies to listen to their pitches. We predict this won’t be the last we hear about the issue.