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by nodesocket 694 days ago
Why do they insist on using what sounds like military pseudo jargon throughout the document?

ex. sensors? I mean how about hosts, machines, clients?

3 comments

It’s endemic in the tech security industry - they’ve been mentally colonised by ex-mil and ex-law enforcement (wannabe mil) folks for a long time.

I try to use social work terms and principles in professional settings, which blows these people’s minds.

Advocacy, capacity evaluation, community engagement, cultural competencies, duty of care, ethics, evidence-based intervention, incentives, macro-, mezzo- and micro-practice, minimisation of harm, respect, self concept, self control etc etc

It means that my teams aren’t focussed on “nuking the bad guys from orbit” or whatever, but building defence in depth and indeed our own communities of practice (hah!), and using psychological and social lenses as well as tech and adversarial ones to predict, prevent and address disruptive and dangerous actors.

YMMV though.

Even computer security itself is a metaphor (at least in its inception). I often wonder what if instead of using terms like access, key, illegal operation, firewall, etc. we'd instead chosen metaphors from a different domain, for example plumbing. I'm sure a plumbing metaphor could also be found for every computer security concern. Would be so quick to romanticize as well as militarize a field dealing with "leaks," "blockages," "illegal taps," and "water quality"?
“Fatbergs” expresses some things delivered by some teams very eloquently for me!
Alternate dimension PR comment: looks flushable to me
"military grade encryption!" aka just AES-256

always makes me laugh

The sensor isn't a host, machine, or a client. It's the software component that detects threats. I guess maybe you could call it an agent instead, but I think sensor is pretty accepted terminology in the EDR space - it's not specific to Crowdstrike.
because those things are different? i didn't see a single "military" jargon. there is absolutely nothing unusual about their wording. It's like someone saying "why do these people use such nerdy words" regarding HN content.