At its Symposium/ITxpo 2003, held last month in San Diego, California, research firm Gartner painted a picture of rapacious security vendors having shot themselves in the virtual foot by over-hyping products that didn't deliver and trying to hawk solutions so advanced that companies couldn't see any possible use for them.

That didn't mean there weren't real threats, the research company said, just that vendors and buyers weren't often on the same page when it comes to product.

"The inhibiting effects of the economic downturn and buyers' remorse over previous grand-plan security initiatives are in balance with a defensive stance driven by modern political realities as well as demands for privacy," Gartner vice-president and research area director Victor Wheatman said in typical Gartner-speak.

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