5 ms·

Fox-IT is THE leading security firm in The Netherlands.

by the-dude 9y ago

jacquesm 9y ago
By volume, not by reputation.
- the-dude 9y ago
  Would you care to comment on who is leading by reputation in your opinion?
thinkMOAR 9y ago
Because dutch news outlets always contact them for quotes, because they only know one security company. I'm pretty sure they are not the best. I tend to find it disappointing to see a security company use google analytics on their site and leak their visitor information to a big data third party.
- YouKnowBetter 9y ago
  Would you care to comment on who you'd consider better?
  - thinkMOAR 9y ago
    That is a very hard question. The simple answer is _that one_ security company that manages to compromise you and point out all issues within your company and or code for you to fix/address, that's the best one (for you). (if we can leave the financial part out of it, because security advice or audits aren't cheap either.) But it is not that simple. I don't consider that very likely, that you actually find that 'right' company. (and putting faith in a third party to audit your code/company, brings other risks too). And chances are that some issues will be overlooked but not by that 'weird' guy/girl in the attic that has all the time of the world to security probe you 'for free'. And there will always be a part you can't audit properly, your employees, which often is the origin of a hack, disgruntled employees. Or even worse, a disgruntled employee of the security company that just audited you. And keep in mind, with enough power, you can get anything offline or in a non acceptable state (half working, data compromise etc). So security companies can only help you a certain length, nonetheless it can be very helpful to have a person from outside look at things with 'fresh eyes' and see things you have overlooked for so long because you are right in the middle of it all.
  - d215 9y ago
    https://radicallyopensecurity.com/ https://radicallyopensecurity.com/ are pretty great. Don't know if they're actually better than fox-it. The latter I only know by reputation.
- mcv 9y ago
  I have no idea if they're the best, but they're pretty important. They also handle lots of internet security for the government. Them getting in trouble is a big deal.
  - gpvos 9y ago
    Ah yes, the Dutch government, which is so good at digital security choices cough Diginotar cough.
smhg 9y ago
The term security expert (or similar) always gives me this uncomfortable feeling. Even if they don't literally call themselves this, definitely (in the case of Fox-IT) their appearance in the media often portrays them like this to the general public. Without getting into semantics, the general public is often left with experts' advice which makes them feel incompetent and/or scared. I guess you could blame journalism, but I don't know if you can expect them to be the whole bridge between both (that's another philosophical discussion anyway). My beef with these 'security experts from Fox-IT say...'-pieces is they don't provide proper context. Something like technology is complex, security is complex, it is hard or impossible to know everything, to know future risks,... you get the picture. I really like it when people acknowledge they don't know everything and in this case specifically because the opposite, I think, has a very negative effect on the general public.
frik 9y ago
As Fox aka (Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc.) got acquired by Disney yesterday and is in the HN news. This news (Fox-IT) is about a completely different company from another continent! "Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox" (thewaltdisneycompany.com) 533 points by mxfh 23 hours ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15921692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15921692 Fox-IT is unrelated to Fox, so it's not the internal IT department of Fox. Fox-IT seems to be a company from Netherland. @downvoters: what's your problem? I wasted 5min reading the news, until I found out that it's a minor known company, and not related to "Fox". And then I inform others on HN, but then I get downvotes, yeah right - toxic
- yesenadam 9y ago
  "Don't be snarky. ... Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."
- donkeyd 9y ago
  You get downvotes because of a probable combination of: - You comment this on a comment that already describes exactly what Fox-IT is. - You imply that anything that happens on another continent than yours is time "wasted". - Which in turn implies that all HN readers should be from the same continent that you are from. - There are many other companies with a name that contains Fox (pdf reader, apparel), this stuff happens. - You ask downvoters what their problem is. Which, from my experience is a very good way to get more downvotes. - The name of the country is the Netherlands, not Netherland.
  - mcv 9y ago
    > The name of the country is the Netherlands, not Netherland. I disagree. I'm Dutch[0], and I find it stupid that English speakers always pluralise our country. We've been a unified country for quite some time now. Netherland is fine. [0] Yeah, "Dutch" is another one of those weird things that English inflicts on us. Why?
    - nate_meurer 9y ago

Fox-IT is THE leading security firm in The Netherlands.

jacquesm 9y ago

By volume, not by reputation.

the-dude 9y ago
Would you care to comment on who is leading by reputation in your opinion?

thinkMOAR 9y ago

Because dutch news outlets always contact them for quotes, because they only know one security company. I'm pretty sure they are not the best. I tend to find it disappointing to see a security company use google analytics on their site and leak their visitor information to a big data third party.

YouKnowBetter 9y ago
Would you care to comment on who you'd consider better?
- thinkMOAR 9y ago
  That is a very hard question. The simple answer is _that one_ security company that manages to compromise you and point out all issues within your company and or code for you to fix/address, that's the best one (for you). (if we can leave the financial part out of it, because security advice or audits aren't cheap either.) But it is not that simple. I don't consider that very likely, that you actually find that 'right' company. (and putting faith in a third party to audit your code/company, brings other risks too). And chances are that some issues will be overlooked but not by that 'weird' guy/girl in the attic that has all the time of the world to security probe you 'for free'. And there will always be a part you can't audit properly, your employees, which often is the origin of a hack, disgruntled employees. Or even worse, a disgruntled employee of the security company that just audited you. And keep in mind, with enough power, you can get anything offline or in a non acceptable state (half working, data compromise etc). So security companies can only help you a certain length, nonetheless it can be very helpful to have a person from outside look at things with 'fresh eyes' and see things you have overlooked for so long because you are right in the middle of it all.
- d215 9y ago
  https://radicallyopensecurity.com/ https://radicallyopensecurity.com/ are pretty great. Don't know if they're actually better than fox-it. The latter I only know by reputation.
mcv 9y ago
I have no idea if they're the best, but they're pretty important. They also handle lots of internet security for the government. Them getting in trouble is a big deal.
- gpvos 9y ago
  Ah yes, the Dutch government, which is so good at digital security choices cough Diginotar cough.

smhg 9y ago

The term security expert (or similar) always gives me this uncomfortable feeling. Even if they don't literally call themselves this, definitely (in the case of Fox-IT) their appearance in the media often portrays them like this to the general public. Without getting into semantics, the general public is often left with experts' advice which makes them feel incompetent and/or scared. I guess you could blame journalism, but I don't know if you can expect them to be the whole bridge between both (that's another philosophical discussion anyway). My beef with these 'security experts from Fox-IT say...'-pieces is they don't provide proper context. Something like technology is complex, security is complex, it is hard or impossible to know everything, to know future risks,... you get the picture. I really like it when people acknowledge they don't know everything and in this case specifically because the opposite, I think, has a very negative effect on the general public.

frik 9y ago

As Fox aka (Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc.) got acquired by Disney yesterday and is in the HN news. This news (Fox-IT) is about a completely different company from another continent! "Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox" (thewaltdisneycompany.com) 533 points by mxfh 23 hours ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15921692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15921692 Fox-IT is unrelated to Fox, so it's not the internal IT department of Fox. Fox-IT seems to be a company from Netherland. @downvoters: what's your problem? I wasted 5min reading the news, until I found out that it's a minor known company, and not related to "Fox". And then I inform others on HN, but then I get downvotes, yeah right - toxic

yesenadam 9y ago
"Don't be snarky. ... Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."
donkeyd 9y ago
You get downvotes because of a probable combination of: - You comment this on a comment that already describes exactly what Fox-IT is. - You imply that anything that happens on another continent than yours is time "wasted". - Which in turn implies that all HN readers should be from the same continent that you are from. - There are many other companies with a name that contains Fox (pdf reader, apparel), this stuff happens. - You ask downvoters what their problem is. Which, from my experience is a very good way to get more downvotes. - The name of the country is the Netherlands, not Netherland.
- mcv 9y ago
  > The name of the country is the Netherlands, not Netherland. I disagree. I'm Dutch[0], and I find it stupid that English speakers always pluralise our country. We've been a unified country for quite some time now. Netherland is fine. [0] Yeah, "Dutch" is another one of those weird things that English inflicts on us. Why?
  - nate_meurer 9y ago