Are cybersecurity vendors this year’s Pets.com? That’s a question Enterprise Security Group analyst Jon Oltsik asks as he examines 52-week high stock prices, IPOs and other financial maneuverings revolving around today’s cybersecurity industry.

“For those of us old enough to live through the Internet boom, this all has a familiar ring to it,” Oltsik writes. “And just like the time when online pet food companies had multibillion-dollar valuations, the cybersecurity industry is starting to sound a bit like a sock puppet.”

Oltsik highlights five areas that, in his words, reflect “cybersecurity charlatanism,” which range from a growing sense that nothing will work, so why try, to political candidates from both sides of the aisle spewing useless and ignorant arguments about the best ways to secure data.

“Cybersecurity charlatanism would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous,” Oltsik writes. “We are talking about national security, privacy, and people’s lives here –not just sock puppet-like ten-bangers and IPOs.”

See what Oltsik says about what needs to be done to address cybersecurity charlatanism.

Financial markets roil cloud computing pricing

Ethereal Mind blogger Greg Ferro writes that the world’s financial markets are making an impact on public cloud computing costs — and the impact is not a favorable one. Events in Greece, China and elsewhere have fueled the U.S. dollar, which has increased in value by almost 10% over the past three months. That’s translated to as much as a 25% increase in cloud computing prices for customers using services from Google, Microsoft and Amazon.

“Combined with the lack of price reductions in 2015 (does Moore’s law flow through to selling price?), cloud computing isn’t cheap and it’s getting more expensive. And if you are struggling with cash flow, you don’t need unpredictable stresses like this,” Ferro writes.

Check out Ferro’s thoughts about public cloud computing prices.

Vendors still not ready for Ipv6?

Packet Pushers blogger and network architect Barry Greene says engineers should tread carefully when asking vendors for help in their IPv6 upgrade projects. “The state of vendor IPv6 readiness was a shocker,” he writes, adding that he found few who could answer basic IPv6 questions. With IPv4 addresses at a premium, organizations and institutions need to make the move to IPv6 with IPv4 serving as a backup or extra protocol, he writes. Among requirements organizations need to nail down are assurances that products can support both IPv6 and IPv4, that products conform to existing standards and that IPv6-only key certificate management is used.

Find out what you should add to your IPv6 RFP.

IoT wireless standards get a boost, but road remains bumpy

Ian Grant, senior analyst at Current Analysis, said the addition of Cisco and Accenture to the Wireless IoT Forum’s standardization process adds another wrinkle in the battle to rationalize the proprietary standards now used in most IoT applications. While having the companies involved may reduce development costs, the number of IoT approaches now in use today could frustrate attempts to winnow them down in the near future.

“End users should continue to match the technology to the application, seeking to maximize cost-benefit efficiencies,” Grant writes. “Standards will help, but the choice of which wireless system to use is unlikely to reduce to just a few — at least any time soon.”

See what else Grant has to say about the evolving IoT marketplace.