Michael Farnum: No book required - branding is

This post is edited - I have made a huge mistake - thinking Michael Farnum to be Marcus Ranum. Wow - that is a mistake not even sleepless nights may explain! I have edited the post to reflect the correct name.

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Michael Farnum, a superhero of security, is having a hard time with people not recognizing him as the authority he is. Of course, after around 20 years in a business where whatever he says and does is hailed upon, it must be easy to get cocky. Guess I need to do a Security Profile on him to see if he really is.

So - Michael had a problem with Douglas Schweitzer's blog post describing bots. And as the helper Michael is, he jumps in and immediately explains that Douglas is mistaking, and then describes a bot as it should be. Of course this starts off a fire.

All this was brought to my attention by Michael posting his frustration on his own blog today. It turns out in the post someone posted a comment on the Douglas story, telling Michael to turn away, since he has not

"written any computer security books "

This should get a gun like Michael to laugh out loud. It sure made me do that. Especially since the comment is made on his own blog!

And I did not laugh only because there are people out there who do not know Michael . But to see Michael actually fire up as he does because someone out there actually do not know about him!

So Michael - the lessen for you and the rest of us is simple. It is not about writing a book - it is about branding. You may write a lot of books, and you might not. If no one knows your name, you are nobody. And to David, you are obviously a nobody. And to impress David, it takes a book!

Imo, there is no need to get angry and fire yourself up just because there are people not recognizing you as the security expert you obviously are to many others. It should wake you up - it might be time to revise your marketing and branding strategy to the changes in the market space?