The demo was incredible.
Real-time threat visualization. AI-powered detection. Dashboard graphs that would make any board presentation pop. The vendor had slides showing how their platform stopped attacks at three Fortune 500 companies.
Your boss loved it. The board would love it. It looks exactly like what a modern security program should have.
So why does your gut say it’s wrong?
The Shiny New Toy Problem
You’re fighting for budget. Again.
The business wants to see security “doing something.” The board wants proof you’re taking threats seriously. And that vendor demo? It looked exactly like what a modern security program should have.
Problem is, you have three open reqs you can’t fill, a backlog of vulnerabilities from last quarter, and a SIEM nobody has time to watch.
But sure, let’s add another tool.
Here’s what I’ve learned across two CISO roles and 20+ years in this field: the stuff that looks impressive and the stuff that actually reduces risk are usually different things.
Very different things.
What Security Theater Looks Like
Security theater feels productive. It checks boxes. It impresses executives. It gives everyone warm fuzzy feelings about being protected.
It just doesn’t actually reduce risk.
The annual pentest that finds the same issues every year. You run it. You get a report. You present findings to leadership. Everyone nods seriously. Nothing gets fixed. But hey, you’re “testing regularly.”
The SIEM that nobody watches. Logs flowing in. Dashboards showing activity. Alerts firing into a queue nobody monitors. Cost: $50K/year. Value: zero. But you can tell auditors you have “centralized logging.”
The security awareness training everyone clicks through. Annual video. Quick quiz. 100% completion rate. Zero behavior change. Phishing still works exactly the same. But compliance says you’re “training users.”
The framework assessment that becomes a spreadsheet exercise. You map every control. You score everything. You create a beautiful heat map. You never actually improve anything. But you’re “aligned with industry standards.”
See the pattern? It all looks like security. It just doesn’t work like security.
What Real Security Looks Like
Real security is usually less impressive and more effective.
It doesn’t always demo well. It’s harder to explain in board meetings. It doesn’t come with flashy dashboards or impressive vendor presentations.
But it actually reduces the risk of bad things happening.
Patching the vulnerabilities you already know about. Not sexy. Not new. Definitely not innovative. But when CISA says “patch these,” and you actually patch them? That’s security.
Fixing the access nobody remembered to revoke. That contractor from 2023 who still has database access. The service account nobody knows about. The shared credentials in that Slack channel. Finding them. Killing them. Boring. Effective.
The runbook someone can actually use at 3am. Not 40 pages of procedures. Not a framework mapping. One page. Clear steps. Phone numbers that work. Decision authority that’s explicit. Unglamorous. Lifesaving.
The monitoring that catches things you care about. Not 10,000 alerts nobody reads. Five alerts that matter, routed to people who can act, with clear playbooks for response. Simple. Powerful.
Notice the difference? Real security solves specific problems you actually have. Security theater solves problems that look good in presentations.
The Questions That Cut Through the Noise
When someone pitches you a shiny new security tool, ask these questions:
What specific threat does this prevent, detect, or respond to that we actually face?
Not theoretical threats. Not “advanced persistent adversaries.” What attack that’s hit organizations like yours will this stop?
If the answer is vague, it’s probably theater.
What stops working if we don’t buy this?
Not “we won’t be as secure.” What specific capability do we lose? What attack succeeds that wouldn’t otherwise?
If nothing breaks without it, you probably don’t need it.
Who uses this and how often?
If the answer is “it runs automatically” or “the security team checks it monthly,” dig deeper. Tools that nobody actively uses tend to drift toward uselessness.
What do we have to stop doing to make room for this?
Security teams are maxed out. If you add a new tool, something else gets less attention. Is this new thing more important than whatever you’re about to deprioritize?
If you can’t name what you’re willing to drop, you can’t afford to add this.
Can you show me the last three findings from the demo environment and what happened?
Not marketing materials. Actual findings. What did it detect? What did someone do about it? What was the outcome?
If they can’t show you the unsexy reality, they’re selling theater.
Will you let us run a proof of concept in our actual environment?
Demo environments are optimized to look good. Your environment is messy, full of exceptions, and nothing like their lab setup.
A real POC in your environment with your data tells you if this thing actually works where it matters. If the vendor won’t do a POC or makes it difficult, that tells you something.
The Red Flags That Scream Theater
Some things just give it away:
“Everyone in your industry is buying this.” Cool. Show me evidence it reduces risk for organizations like mine. Popularity contests don’t stop incidents.
“This will solve your compliance problem.” Compliance is about checking boxes. Security is about reducing risk. Tools that lead with compliance rarely deliver security.
“Our AI detects threats you can’t see.” Maybe. Or maybe it generates alerts nobody can action. Show me the false positive rate and the effort required to investigate findings.
“You need this to be secure.” No tool is required for security. Defense in depth means losing any single tool shouldn’t break your program. If a vendor says their product is essential, they’re overselling.
The demo is incredible but the implementation timeline is “it depends.” Theater demos well. Security requires work. If they can’t tell you the real timeline and effort, they haven’t actually implemented this enough to know.
What Actually Matters
Here’s what I find every time I walk into a new program: most organizations don’t have a tool problem. They have a half-assed implementation problem.
I call them HAIs.
The SIEM nobody tuned. The vulnerability scanner producing reports nobody acts on. The EDR collecting data nobody hunts with.
My favorite: Tool A bought to solve Problem X. Never fully implemented. Vendor pitches Tool B that also solves Problem X. You buy that too. Now you have two tools doing the same thing poorly, and Problem X still isn’t solved.
Tool overlap. Poor optimization. Zero rationalization. Thirty tools in your stack. Gaps everywhere.
So before you buy the shiny new toy, ask yourself: Would this money be better spent finishing what we started?
Because the best security tool in the world is useless if it’s just another HAI in your stack.
The Reality Check
Someone will pitch you something shiny. The demo will be impressive. The vendor will have compelling case studies. Leadership will want to know why you’re not “doing more.”
Before you cave to the pressure, run it through this filter:
- Does this solve a specific problem we have?
- Is this the most effective way to solve that problem?
- Do we have the people/time/skills to make it work?
- What are we not doing if we do this?
- Will they let us run a real POC in our environment?
- Will this actually reduce risk or just look like it does?
If you can’t answer all six confidently, it’s probably theater.
The Bottom Line
I’m not against new tools. I’m against theater that masquerades as security while real risks go unaddressed.
Your annual pentest is theater if nothing gets fixed. Your expensive SIEM is theater if nobody watches it. Your security awareness training is theater if behavior doesn’t change. Your shiny new AI-powered-whatever is theater if it doesn’t reduce specific, measurable risk.
Real security is boring. It’s fixing known problems. It’s doing the unglamorous work. It’s measuring whether things actually got better.
So when that impressive demo comes your way, ask yourself: Is this security or is this theater?
Your budget—and your actual security posture—depends on knowing the difference.
Need help separating security from security theater in your program? Or evaluating whether that tool is worth the investment? Vaughn Cyber Group specializes in cutting through vendor noise to build security that actually works.