Cutting Through the Cyber Hype

Some of our Colleagues were at CyberCon last week.

It’s always a great event! New ideas, smart people, plenty of energy. But one thing stood out this year. Every few conversations seemed to start the same way:

“Did you hear about the Qantas breach?” followed by: “Our tech would have stopped that.”

Different vendors. Different products. Same confident pitch.

Here’s the problem: not every breach is caused by the same thing.If the issue was credential reuse, a missing control, or a human in a third-party call centre; then a shiny new endpoint agent or firewall isn’t going to make a difference.

That doesn’t make the tool useless. It just means it’s not the fix for that specific problem.But that’s not how it’s being sold.

Too often, the story starts with the tool, not the understanding - and that’s where things go wrong. Because if you don’t understand what a tool actually does, (and where it fits) you’ll never know whether it’s solving your problem or just shifting it somewhere else.

Why understanding matters

In cybersecurity, prevention isn’t about plugging every gap with a new product.It’s about understanding how each control, process, and person fits into the bigger picture.

When you understand the purpose of a technology, you can see where it adds value, and where it doesn’t. When you don’t, every product demo sounds like the silver bullet you’ve been waiting for.

Understanding brings clarity.

It helps you focus on what genuinely reduces risk, not what just reduces anxiety.

That’s the difference between prevention and reaction.

Prevention starts with knowledge. Reaction starts with noise.

Seeing through the fog

So how do you tell what’s real when everyone says they could have stopped the last breach?

1. Start with the cause, not the cure.

   Don’t jump to tools until you understand what they actually do. Otherwise, you’re just buying hope dressed up as protection.

   
   

2. Ask for context.

   “Our product would have stopped that”.  Really? Under what configuration? What data? What scenario? If they can’t explain it simply, they probably don’t understand it themselves.

   
   

3. Look for fit, not flash.

   A tool that’s brilliant in one environment might do nothing in yours. The right question isn’t “is it good?”, it’s “is it right for us?”.

   
   

4. Challenge the certainty.

   Real experts talk in probabilities, not promises. Confidence sells. Context secures.

   
   

5. Find the truth-teller.

   The person who can say, “This might not be what you need right now,” is worth their weight in gold.

If you’re trying to make sense of it all

Cybersecurity shouldn’t feel like guesswork: You don’t need to know every tool, you just need to understand the right questions to ask before choosing one.

That’s what prevents wasted investment, false confidence, and future breaches.

If you want help cutting through the noise and finding what genuinely fits your business, we can help you work that out; clearly, calmly, and without the hype.

No panic. No pitch. Just clarity.

Secure today. Stronger tomorrow.

That’s how we see it.