RSA: 'Trendy' security market causing confusion

RSA's CTO warns the surge of security start-ups is harming the industry

The surge in start-ups specialising in cybersecurity has caused customer confusion in the market, according to RSA.

The EMC-owned security firm's chief technology officer Zulfikar Ramzan said cybersecurity has become "trendy" thanks to the huge spike in the number of start-ups that have entered the market.

But the market's new-found fashionable status is not always good for customers, according to Ramzan:

"Even a few years ago, we had to convince people that we were actually addressing relevant problems and that cybersecurity had to be done differently," he said on an RSA blog. "The status quo solutions ostensibly appeared sufficient and even forward-thinking venture capitalists were more inclined to throw money at buzzwords such as social networking, cloud, and big data.

"Fast-forward and cybersecurity is trendy. Start-ups are getting ridiculous amounts of funding. And while it's great to see the field finally burgeoning, the multitude of offerings has created massive confusion in the market. Most start-ups lack folks with any serious security DNA, which hurts our customers because they are getting mixed messages."

But he added that the opportunity facing RSA "couldn't be any better".

"In my conversations with customers, it's clear that we are solving relevant problems," he said. "Every customer I've talked to has some existing project that we have the means to fulfil with one of our products across our key strategy areas. We couple that with an incredible brand that results in customers being especially receptive to our perspective."

But he did add the RSA has challenges relating to how well known its products are in the market.

"RSA as a company is well known, but our specific product capabilities might not be," he said. "Also, customer expectations might not align with actual customer needs, and we have to perform a balancing act being respectfully cognisant of the relevant forces."