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It is early morning at my desk, third cup of coffee already rousing me to full consciousness, and I am daydreaming about just how different the cybersecurity world is today than when I started in 1993, as a network admin. Those were the days of managing networks and multiplexers by doing voice and data over PSTN—yes, for you yungins, look it up, just the good ol’ Public Switched Telephone Network. Just think of that, no whizzy cloud, no AI alarms going off every second, just thousands upon thousands of raw, dirty wires and switches.
And you know what, you gain a good bit of insight from witnessing what happens when chaos makes its way into the network. The Slammer worm still looms large in my memory. For you youngs, Slammer was a worm so fast it took big hulking chunks of the internet off the air in mere minutes. It was my first taste of just how flimsy and naked networks actually were. Now I run my own security company, where after years of that I help banks, mostly, navigate complex zero-trust upgrades.
I JUST returned from DefCon, and I’m buzzing from the hardware hacking village — watching how the vector of attack has matured from being about bits and bytes, to hardware, just really brings home that security is a whole. But enough with the nostalgia. Next, I want to go into some real-life lessons from my journey that can help your business survive the cybersecurity storm being felt today.
In the PSTN era everything was hands-on. Networks were steel and copper, switches and multiplexers. No fancy dashboards or AI-powered detection (more on that skepticism below). From the beginning I learned the importance of knowing every layer of a network stack—not just a thin slice.
When Slammer worm struck in 2003, network defenses were largely focused on the perimeter — firewalls on guard at the gates like so many medieval castles. Then that worm slithered through cracks we had never imagined that it would uncover. I recall clients breaking down — systems locked up, processes stopped cold — because we’d never really thought about how quickly malware can actually spread, laterally, within a network. That was a wake-up call.
And now? I’ve rearchitected zero trust and rebuilt from the ground up at 3 of the largest banks. What did I learn? So, zero-trust ISN’T just a buzzword:
But it’s not plug-and-play. And adding zero-trust to your network is not like seasoning a pot of soup — you need the right ingredients, in the right proportions.
DefCon is always a taste of the future and this year the place to be was the hardware hacking village. Computers you trust — including routers, firewalls, and yes your favorite servers — can be compromised in person by attackers with the right gear. It’s not just bad code, bad actors can stroll up, plug in and own your systems.
Which means:
I met people who can pull encryption keys out of hardware by flipping switches and probing circuits. Incredible—and a little scary. Your security ops center must have visibility beyond the software layer.
If you have no time (Hey, we all get busy), here’s a summary of what I always lead with in discussions:
Okay I need to say this. Password policies—UGH.
Here’s the thing, we all know the old rules: minimum length, complexity, periodic permutations. But honestly? Forcing users to change passwords every 30 days is only a recipe for creating easy-to-guess patterns — password1, password2 and so on. If your attitude toward data is grab first and ask questions later, it’s like using little locks on your vault and then sitting back and hoping thieves will get bored.
What works better?
I get pushback: Some argue that it is necessary to have convoluted rules to prevent brute-force. True, but it’s more user behavior than anything else. You want to simmer down security like a fine curry: the appropriate blend in the right proportion, not mere heat.
Collaborating with three banks on zero-trust updates was a lesson in how to balance regulation, business needs and usability.
What stood out?
We approached problems like:
It wasn’t perfect. We got hiccups around experience — because you can’t just put everyone through extra hoops without training and communication. But gradually, trust accrues when the network doesn’t just shut the doors after the robbery, but ensures that suspicious shadows don’t skulk in the halls.
Hey—everything’s AI-powered this, AI-powered that. Honestly, I’m skeptical. AI is great for pattern recognition but to have it as your firewall or I.D.S. is no better than setting the car on autopilot on a dirt road filled with potholes. It might be intelligent, but it is not infallible.
Most AI tools are trained on known threats and what has happened in the past. What about zero-day attacks? Social engineering? Hardware exploits? AI is not magic — it is just a tool.
My advice:
Cybersecurity is somewhat like the fine tuning of an old car or the preparation of a family recipe passed down for generations. You have to honor the basics and then adjust for today’s prevailing road conditions (and taste buds).
It’s messy. It’s relentless. But if you have a half a century of haphazard successes and failures under your belt — like me — you begin to endorse patterns. You understand that technology evolves, but human nature does not. That’s where the challenge lies.
So if you run an electric grid, manage a bank’s digital fortress or just want to protect your business email, keep these lessons in mind:
And for what it’s worth, if you ever want to chatter about zero-trust architectures or your firewall setup — give me a holler. I’ve also made enough network coffee to share stories and fix challenges.
Until next time — keep your networks close, and your passwords longer than my running list of things to do each morning.
– Sanjay Seth
