It's hard to stay on top of all the security holes. Johnson says his company takes the nonthreatening approach with customers rather than punching a hole in their security and showing them how easily a hacker could do the same. He shows clients that the problem is technology and not their security device, and what they need to take every precaution. Among the vendors leading the charge are ISS, with 30 percent of the market, followed by Axent Technologies Inc. with 19 percent, and Network Associates Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. with 11 percent each, according to The Yankee Group's 1997 research. VAR SecureIT has been working with ISS products and implementing them for clients across a range of verticals, including utilities, financial, telecommunications, state and local governments.
Some clients take a proactive approach, while others are reacting to a breach of security.
Johnson explains that for the latter, it is an unfortunate and painful learning process. Security safeguards have often been implemented on a departmental level, says Rossie. Security is becoming increasingly enterprise-oriented. And yet, the implementation affects a third department. Therefore, security is becoming more complex, and VARs have to position themselves to go after those types of opportunities.