If Anonymous, LulzSec et al. can pwn security vendors, who can protect us? Here’s help on how to rate security vendors on the sitting-duck scale.

In this two-part look at how to vet security vendors, my first article—In God We Trust, but Security Vendors Need to Sign the Papers—focuses on assessing a vendor. This is done at arm’s length by simple online research as well as by holding security vendors accountable for not living up to various agreed-upon levels of service, similar to what’s being done increasingly by the industries Veracode notes.

The second article, In God We Trust, but It’s Nice to Do a Physical Walk-Through on Security Vendors, features input from Infosec professionals on what to watch for if you can conduct an on-site visit to a security vendor.