Buzzword or real deal?
At ONE Conference on 6 and 7 October, visitors to our booth judged 30 cybersecurity terms. Overall the split was close: 53% buzzword, 47% real deal. Per term, the differences were large.
30 terms, two days at the ON2IT booth. Thanks to everyone who voted.
How would you vote?
Three terms from the wall. Make your call, then open the card to see how the booth voted.
NIS2 proof
Show the result
Attack surface
Show the result
Cyber hygiene
Show the result
Most rejected, most trusted
Share of votes for buzzword per term. The five terms rejected most often, and the five kept most often.
The pattern: hype and terms that promise an outcome, such as Vulnpocalypse and single pane of glass, were rejected. Terms that describe something you can measure or control, such as attack surface and least privilege, were kept. Zero Trust was called a real deal by 9 of 11 voters.
About the data: we counted votes, not unique visitors, and voters were not identified. Each term received 7 to 17 votes, so one vote moves a score by 6 to 14 points. Read the results as a direction, not an exact ranking.
Same topic, different verdict
Sovereignty appeared on the wall twice. Most voters rejected the absolute claim and accepted the general term.
AI terms landed in between. Shadow AI, AI-powered and Agentic AI received 59 to 69% buzzword votes.
Apply the same test to your MDR
The booth asked one question: can you verify it? The MDR Scorecard asks it about your own security. Ten questions on five things you can check, three minutes, and you see your score straight away.
Take the MDR Scorecard