Every since the Melissa virus that hit the headlines a decade ago, mainstream media has been fascinated with desktop IT security. This is the realm of trojans, viruses, worms and spam.
It’s also a world that touches hundreds of millions of PCs and has wide ranging impact.
From a journalist perspective there is a never ending stream of threats that seem to attack the desktop and no shortage of vendor claims about those threats.
The Challenge
The challenge when it comes to desktop security is how to cut through all the clutter and baggage surrounding desktop security. There are many vendors that all claim to do the same thing – namely protect user desktops. What’s the difference and why should I – as a journalist care?
Ultimately it’s not just about the context, but about the technology and the new angles/stats or discoveries that make or break a really good desktop security story.
How to Pitch
Hooking out the outbreak wave (see Part 2) is an obvious approach. With the desktop though there is also a particular cadence that other sectors of IT security don’t benefit from.
The first Tuesday of every month is Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday – and seeing as Microsoft dominates the desktop world – it is THE DAY for desktop security.
Every journalist that covers desktop security will have (at least a passing) interest in Patch Tuesday. Vendors that protect user desktops always have a great opportunity of getting their voices heard by being included in stories commenting about the latest round of Microsoft’s patches.
On ITDatabase.com query: Patch Tuesday
The other big vendors to note are McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro and F-Secure (query : vendor name) as those vendors are often associated closely with the desktop security market. Identifying journalist that write about those vendors will help to lead PR people to appropriate contacts for desktop security stories.
For specific types of threats keyword searches may also be appropriate (query: spam, malware, worms).
Desktop security isn’t as siloed an area of IT security as it once was from a journalist coverage perspective, but thanks to Microsoft and Patch Tuesday it’s still a critical one.
