Apparently, IBM is so incredibly secure that they can't even decide which of their security divisions is the most secure. In two different studies released today, the company's Internet Security Services (ISS) division and it's Managed Security Services (MSS) division were both named the leading managed security service being offered today. The Professional Security Services (PSS) division, always the bridesmaid apparently, got only an honorable mention.

MSS gains the title in Forrester's Wave: Managed Security Services for Q4 2007 report, coming in first among ten competing managed security services. ISS, on the other hand, comes in ahead of 39 other competitors with 11% market share in Frost & Sullivan's North American Managed Security Services Markets report.

The more I poke around these two divisions, the less sure I am that they are actually separate, but even today IBM is such a byzantine organization that it wouldn't surprise me either way. Nor, if in fact they should be the same, does it particularly surprise me that corporate PR announced the dual honors in two separate press releases which contained nearly identical wording in places yet did not refer to one another in any respect.