Quotes of Note

Heard at the CSO Perspectives Conference in Colorado Springs, Colo.

By Scott Berinato

May 21, 2007 — CSO —

"The FBI is better [than local police] at keeping their mouth shut to the press." –Attendee playing the victim of a serious data breach in the conference’s opening tabletop exercise

"All we kept saying is, ‘We have no investigation open at this time.’" –Attendee playing the local police in the tabletop exercise

"It’s going to get spun [by the media], because the truth isn’t interesting." –Attendee playing the victim

"Facts don’t matter. Everything we saw from [the breached company] looked like a cover-up, whether or not there was one." –Attendee playing the part of the media

"We had a plan. Back-to-back hurricanes overwhelmed the plan." –Target VP Brad Brekke, on disaster recovery in the face of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005

"Diplomacy is the art of saying, ‘Nice doggie, nice doggie,’ until you can find a rock." –Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, who led the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, quoting Will Rogers

"The problem [in Iraq], of course, is security. This year has been disappointing." –Bremer, in his keynote address

"Americans must be patient. It will be a long war, like the Cold War." –Bremer

"I think it’s a bunch of crap." –Former CSO George Campbell, on the concept of security convergence

"It is inevitable."–Former CSO David Burrill, on the same

"We find that...not good." –Bruce Larson, CSO of American Water, addressing the idea of someone tainting the water supply, with understatement