Check Point's marketing boob due to RSA rush

Outside contractor blamed for whiting out competitors in firewall report, according to NSS Labs blog

Check Point has apparently blamed a recent marketing howler on an error made by an outside contractor.

As reported by CRN, the security vendor blanked out some of the competitors clustered around it in NSS Labs' 2013 next-generation firewall (NGF) report when presenting the results in a PDF on its website.

But the tactic backfired after NSS was alerted and penned a blog reminding vendors of the strict rules they must adhere to when reusing its reports in their marketing material.

At the time, NSS Labs did not name Check Point specifically, but has now seen fit to pen a follow-up blog in wake of the press coverage the vendor's marketing own goal has attracted.

In the blog, Bob Walder, president of the independent testing lab, said Check Point's alteration of its SVM [security value map] was "dumb" and breached its Ts and Cs.

"Did it affect the integrity of the underlying research? Categorically not," he added.

"Just to clarify. Check Point erased a couple of data points on the final graphic, and states this was due to an error made by an outside contractor in the rush to get things ready for RSA.

"However, it did not alter the data. It did not alter the position of its device, nor of any of the other devices alongside it."

Walder stressed that NSS Labs actually spends a lot of time slapping vendors on the wrists over their various marketing exuberances, adding: "While creativity and artistic interpretation are often very useful in the creation of a masterpiece of fiction, never forget that the original subject always remains unchanged by the ministrations of the artist :o)"

Check Point has so far declined to comment.