The reporters at Team CBR have been working particularly hard this week. Well, okay, so they’ve been playing with Lego.

It is, of course, work-related, though!

I spent some time at the Gartner Security Summit this week mingling and schmoozing – doing what I do best. As well as picking up plenty of industry insights I also picked up a few freebies. There were the customary pens, the fairly standard notepads and some pouches of Lego blocks.

The Lego was handed to me at stall being manned by component lifecycle management firm, Sonatype. The story of the company and its solutions was regaled to me and, in turn, the reason for the Lego became apparent.

As the story went: "Once upon a time there was a great battle between speed and security…" Actually, I won’t spoil the whole story for you. You can find it all on the company’s website.

Let’s get to the good bit about the Lego. "And then, there came the revolution! The component revolution. Code became like Lego – applications easily assembled from thousands of freely available parts. Developers ran even faster and Security found it even harder to secure.

"How can we keep safe at this even faster speed of development? How can we secure this new Lego ‘software supply chain’?"

Well, that’s where Sonatype is supposed to come in.

It’s always interesting to learn more about companies and their products and, to be honest, I think this was the first time a company ever used a children’s toy to help me understand. I did find it very interesting, so perhaps that’s more my level.

Maybe at next year’s event companies can help me better understand their solutions with the help of Buckaroo, Hungry Hippos and a Space Hopper. We can only hope.

So far, we’ve built a Loch Ness Monster, an airplane and a helicopter.