Mike Rothman hangs up analyst hat for new vendor job at eIQnetworks

Things in the security industry are getting curiouser and curiouser. Up is down. Black is white. Cats and dogs are living together. Mike Rothman, a ferociously independent security analyst and blogger at Security Incite, is making the leap back into the vendor world as senior vice president of strategy and chief marketing officer at eIQnetworks, a provider of a security management platform for compliance. Rothman has spent the last few years variously doing research and speaking plainly about security vendors. Before that, he spent his share of time in the vendor community, at SHYM, CipherTrust and TruSecure. Why he decided to get back into the fire, well, here’s what Rothman says:

No, I wasn’t expecting this. No, I wasn’t looking for a job. No, I didn’t “need” to. Yes, I’m probably nuts for taking another vendor job. But a number of pretty cool things came together and compelled me to make this move.

I should always remember that “never” is a very long time. Given my short attention span, the idea of “never” doing anything again is pretty silly.

What exactly Rothman will be doing as a CMO is unclear, but the one thing you can count on is that he’ll say what he thinks. And it will probably be entertaining.