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I guess we're going to debate the merits of statements in a thinly-veiled bit of PR now? There's almost no news about this company until about a month ago (http

I guess we're going to debate the merits of statements in a thinly-veiled bit of PR now? There's almost no news about this company until about a month ago (http://www.networkworld.com/article/2955017/security/endpoint-security-firm-sentinelone-challenges-traditional-anti-virus-software.html http://www.networkworld.com/article/2955017/security/endpoin...). They recently hired a new PR company (http://www.mgpr.info/ http://www.mgpr.info/) who's been spamming articles to Reuters on SentinelOne's behalf (https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site:reuters.com+sentinelone https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=site:reuters.com+sentin...), and then reaching out to hacks to write submarine articles (http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html) about the death of anti-virus -- which just happens to be the marketing lede of SentinelOne's endpoint protection product. Then they landed a big contract with Netflix and got a sucker at Forbes to write some PR like it was news, and now it's been picked up by HN and being discussed as though it had some substance.

Sujan 11y ago
Good thing is, people will Google for SentinelOne, find this thread, read the comments and learn a bit what HN thinks about it...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
teh_klev 11y ago
Yes, I thought there was a PR smell about that article.
- davidcatalano 11y ago
  Link bait to paid article under cover of news courtesy of Forbes.
TFoxBrewster 11y ago
Just wanted to chime in to clarify that I contacted Netflix directly without having ever spoken to SentinelOne. When I contacted SentinelOne after the interview they said they couldn't even go on the record about the Netflix contract. Much love, Sucker at Forbes.
- thaumaturgy 11y ago
  Can you say what prompted you to contact Netflix then? The article really reads like a love letter to SentinelOne, and includes some pretty odd bits that work well with their marketing for their endpoint product, like describing it as not an anti-virus product. And what does "post-AV anti-malware" mean?
  - TFoxBrewster 11y ago
    Sure. So it turns out Netflix is this really big company, and I met one of their security architects at Black Hat. I thought, hey, I wonder if they're up to anything interesting at Netflix. I'll give them a call. A love letter? You send love letters like this to people? Are you like a post-modern Keats?
    - thaumaturgy 11y ago
      OK, so then you talked to someone at Netflix, and they said, what, "umm... well, we just replaced our anti-virus product with this other thing called SentinelOne that isn't really an anti-virus product", and then you looked at their site and called them and decided they totally weren't an anti-virus product? And that the real story here was that this was the death knell for anti-virus, or the beginning of "post-AV anti-malware", or something? Clearly you have technical chops. But the most technical part of your article, concerning whatever technology somehow separates this product from the rest of the industry (let alone makes it "not anti-virus"), is this single line: "Its end-point security doesn’t rely on signatures, it monitors every process on a device to check for irregularities and does not perform on-system scans or require massive updates like anti-virus..." If SentinelOne is doing something truly new, something that merits coverage from tech journalists, it would be nice to read about it. And btw, you said earlier, "When I contacted SentinelOne after the interview they said they couldn't even go on the record about the Netflix contract", which is an odd thing for them to have told you, since they have a Netflix logo and an official statement from them under the testimonials section of http://www.sentinelone.com/?show_epp=true http://www.sentinelone.com/?show_epp=true -- wait a minute, in fact the quote from your article is a word-for-word match for the testimonial on SentinelOne's site: "The direction we decided to go was with a company called SentinelOne, who we’ve been working with for year and a half. They were a true replacement for end-point protection". Your contact at Netflix must've been reading from Rob Fry's script...
jonstokes 11y ago
So the author just replied below claiming that it wasn't PR hit. I don't actually believe that, but on the off chance that this isn't a PR hit then it has to be something worse: he did a bunch of googling, saw a spate of news stories about the death of AV (thanks, PR guys!), and was like "hey, the story here is the death of AV... I have a news hook!" In other words, it was self-pwnage. He did the PR firm's work for them, and nobody at that firm even owes him one. Also, whatever I might speculate, I do know this for a fact: a screenshot of that article is going on a PowerPoint slide and will be victoriously displayed in a meeting at some point soon. Edit: Also, I wanted to stab myself in the eye when I read this howler: "Because Netflix, a well-known innovator in the tech sphere, is the first major web firm to openly dump its anti-virus, FORBES has learned. And where Netflix goes, others often follow; just look at the massive uptick of public cloud usage in recent years, following the company’s major investment in Amazon Web Services." So everyone uses "the cloud" (whatever that is) because Netflix uses AWS. I don't remember the last time I saw a reach like that on a site like Forbes.
- TFoxBrewster 11y ago
  Here's a timeline: journalist speaks to Netflix, Netflix says it's ditching anti-virus, journalist gets further comment, reports. Don't be mad Jon. It'll all be OK.
  - criddell 11y ago
    Why did the journalist speak to Netflix in the first place?
    - OJFord 11y ago
      [Comment above](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10135598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10135598) says journalist met Netflix guy at Black Hat.
      - criddell 11y ago
        Ok, fair enough. If the writer insists this is a legitimate piece, I'll believe him. You have to admit though, this certainly reads like a native content article. In the current business climate, you can't fault people for assuming this was paid for.
mad_dr 11y ago
post AV means you are not blacklisting by signature/iocs. since it poor method to detect a virus. sentinelone are using behavioural engine for malware detection, assuming a malware will do malicious things which can be detected. 0-days aren't a problem for sentinelone EPP.

Sujan 11y ago

Good thing is, people will Google for SentinelOne, find this thread, read the comments and learn a bit what HN thinks about it...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

teh_klev 11y ago

Yes, I thought there was a PR smell about that article.

davidcatalano 11y ago
Link bait to paid article under cover of news courtesy of Forbes.

TFoxBrewster 11y ago

Just wanted to chime in to clarify that I contacted Netflix directly without having ever spoken to SentinelOne. When I contacted SentinelOne after the interview they said they couldn't even go on the record about the Netflix contract. Much love, Sucker at Forbes.

thaumaturgy 11y ago
Can you say what prompted you to contact Netflix then? The article really reads like a love letter to SentinelOne, and includes some pretty odd bits that work well with their marketing for their endpoint product, like describing it as not an anti-virus product. And what does "post-AV anti-malware" mean?
- TFoxBrewster 11y ago
  Sure. So it turns out Netflix is this really big company, and I met one of their security architects at Black Hat. I thought, hey, I wonder if they're up to anything interesting at Netflix. I'll give them a call. A love letter? You send love letters like this to people? Are you like a post-modern Keats?
  - thaumaturgy 11y ago
    OK, so then you talked to someone at Netflix, and they said, what, "umm... well, we just replaced our anti-virus product with this other thing called SentinelOne that isn't really an anti-virus product", and then you looked at their site and called them and decided they totally weren't an anti-virus product? And that the real story here was that this was the death knell for anti-virus, or the beginning of "post-AV anti-malware", or something? Clearly you have technical chops. But the most technical part of your article, concerning whatever technology somehow separates this product from the rest of the industry (let alone makes it "not anti-virus"), is this single line: "Its end-point security doesn’t rely on signatures, it monitors every process on a device to check for irregularities and does not perform on-system scans or require massive updates like anti-virus..." If SentinelOne is doing something truly new, something that merits coverage from tech journalists, it would be nice to read about it. And btw, you said earlier, "When I contacted SentinelOne after the interview they said they couldn't even go on the record about the Netflix contract", which is an odd thing for them to have told you, since they have a Netflix logo and an official statement from them under the testimonials section of http://www.sentinelone.com/?show_epp=true http://www.sentinelone.com/?show_epp=true -- wait a minute, in fact the quote from your article is a word-for-word match for the testimonial on SentinelOne's site: "The direction we decided to go was with a company called SentinelOne, who we’ve been working with for year and a half. They were a true replacement for end-point protection". Your contact at Netflix must've been reading from Rob Fry's script...

jonstokes 11y ago

So the author just replied below claiming that it wasn't PR hit. I don't actually believe that, but on the off chance that this isn't a PR hit then it has to be something worse: he did a bunch of googling, saw a spate of news stories about the death of AV (thanks, PR guys!), and was like "hey, the story here is the death of AV... I have a news hook!" In other words, it was self-pwnage. He did the PR firm's work for them, and nobody at that firm even owes him one. Also, whatever I might speculate, I do know this for a fact: a screenshot of that article is going on a PowerPoint slide and will be victoriously displayed in a meeting at some point soon. Edit: Also, I wanted to stab myself in the eye when I read this howler: "Because Netflix, a well-known innovator in the tech sphere, is the first major web firm to openly dump its anti-virus, FORBES has learned. And where Netflix goes, others often follow; just look at the massive uptick of public cloud usage in recent years, following the company’s major investment in Amazon Web Services." So everyone uses "the cloud" (whatever that is) because Netflix uses AWS. I don't remember the last time I saw a reach like that on a site like Forbes.

TFoxBrewster 11y ago
Here's a timeline: journalist speaks to Netflix, Netflix says it's ditching anti-virus, journalist gets further comment, reports. Don't be mad Jon. It'll all be OK.
- criddell 11y ago
  Why did the journalist speak to Netflix in the first place?
  - OJFord 11y ago
    [Comment above](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10135598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10135598) says journalist met Netflix guy at Black Hat.
    - criddell 11y ago
      Ok, fair enough. If the writer insists this is a legitimate piece, I'll believe him. You have to admit though, this certainly reads like a native content article. In the current business climate, you can't fault people for assuming this was paid for.

mad_dr 11y ago

post AV means you are not blacklisting by signature/iocs. since it poor method to detect a virus. sentinelone are using behavioural engine for malware detection, assuming a malware will do malicious things which can be detected. 0-days aren't a problem for sentinelone EPP.