Cybersecurity Insights From Decades of Experience
It’s barely after my third cup of coffee and, it’s a great time to write about what’s been brewing in my mind – cybersecurity isn’t all about fancy tools or the latest AI buzzwords (and I’ll talk more about that later). It’s experience, knowing the territory, and learning from all the inevitable screw-ups on the journey. Since 1993, I’ve been around the block a couple of times, back in the day when I started as a network admin for a guy doing voice and data muxing over PSTN, that’s the old-school Public Switched Telephone Network, ever heard of it? Back then, we had no idea of the wild digital frontier we’d soon be navigating. Now, as I oversee my own security firm, P J Networks Pvt Ltd, with smart firewall configurations, strong servers and routers, and the exploding disarray of zero-trust architectures — I’m always reflecting on the lessons I learned the hard way.
In the Beginning: The Slammer Comes a-Slamming
The last time we had something like that was like 2003-ish, when the Slammer worm was just beating the stuffing out of us. I was up to my knees in network administration at the time. Slammer didn’t just debilitate — it sledgehammered networks across the planet in minutes. For the uninitiated (unlucky you), Slammer propagated through a minuscule 376-byte UDP packet whose payload overran a buffer in Microsoft’s SQL Server. No email attachments. No social engineering. Just boom.
I sat in my stifling office and I watched routers choke and servers crash. And one hard truth dawned on me then — it’s not only the technology that lets you down but the lack of preparedness and layered defense. I’ve repeated that to clients time after time, especially the banks I recently assisted moving to a zero-trust architecture.
Zero Trust Upgrades: Three Banks, and the One Truth
Zero-trust is the hot term of the moment. Never trust, always verify, everyone knows. And sure, it does make sense — your network should treat every device or user as if they’re compromised. But many implementations are zero-trust in name only — effectively just segmented networks in fancy language.
Here’s what I learned by helping three very different banks raise their zero-trust game:
- You can’t just slap microsegmentation onto legacy systems and have magic happen.
- Device posture evaluation needs to be continuous, not a one-and-done check at login.
- Identity proofing is not just MFA (multi-factor authentication). It’s about context — where is the request coming from, what device, at what time?
Occasionally I worry that the zero-trust hype threatens to go the way of the new-fangled firewall hype. Firewalls are not dead: they evolve. And that’ll be something I’ll always hit on with my clients: don’t exchange solid security such as properly setup firewalling or hardened routers for something which is, more than likely, a slick new term and little more than a marketing sizzle than a piece of steak.
Machines and Meatspace: The Hardware Hacking Village at DefCon
I’ve just returned from DefCon, a conference that is part hacker carnival, part cryptography symposium. I spent most of my time in the hardware hacking village. Oh, dude, the things those people were doing with old car ECUs and smart home vendors were just insane.
It was a reminder for me of how physical security is mostly out of sight, out of mind in the broader cybersecurity discussion. You can have a perfect network perimeter with all the firewalls and servers and zero-trust policies in the world, but if someone can jimmy the lock on your server rack or reprogram the embedded controller of your industrial AC unit — well, you’re screwed.
At several banks I consult for, there are old-school hardware there that doesn’t speak security. No encryption. No access control. Nothing but wide open ports — digital and physical.
Here’s the thing: Security isn’t just software. It’s hardware and practices and people.
Password Policies: Annoying as Ever
I say this all the time in my rants. Password policies tend to miss the mark. You’re certainly no safer if you make users come up with insane complex passwords they promptly write down on sticky notes. Or swap passwords so frequently that everyone just uses 3-4 they like best.
I’m not saying don’t take strong authentication off the table, but smarter is better:
- Use password managers — yes, get your employees to use them.
- Use adaptive MFA utilizing push notifications and biometrics where available.
- Teach users about phishing, not just force them to memorize impossibly long passwords.
Password policies should train users to be secure, they shouldn’t annoy them into phishing out security events.
Nostalgia Alert: The Old Networking Days and Why It Is Important
This reminds me of the days of dial-up modems and ISDN lines,—and of circuit-switched networks. In the day (as a network admin in 1993) the problems were that voice and data mux didn’t run into each other and call quality was top of the agenda. Today, we’re looking back at packets, zero-day exploits and payloads: encrypted. The principle remains however – visibility into the network is king.
You can’t defend what you can’t see happening in your network. So, I’m still a heavy user of screaming level logging, network monitoring tools, and yes, the good old packet sniffer.
Quick Take: Your 3-Minute Cybersecurity Reality Check
- Zero-trust is good — but don’t throw a temper tantrum and discard firewalls and network segmentation. They all work together.
- Physical and hardware security can represent a giant Achilles’ heel — don’t overlook it.
- Password policies should be usable to be used.
- That preparedness is preferable to panic, experience does most assuredly tell. Have layered defenses.
- Be skeptical of shiny AI-powered solutions alleging to be miracles. Usually just marketing fluff.
Why I’m Cautious of AI in Security Products
All of a sudden, everyone is AI this, and AI that and how they will “revolutionize cybersecurity.” But for substance to fake an equal to substance, I’ve seen plenty of that. Yes, AI can analyze threats quicker, but it can also produce false positives and potentially miss complex, context-sensitive attacks that roomful of humans might detect.
And here’s my view: Don’t depend only on AI tools that are built to be automated. Consider A.I. to be your co-pilot, not your autopilot. Human judgment remains crucial — particularly when you’re dealing with real-world consequences and messy environments.
There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Cyber Gap’
Well, if I’ve learned anything from running P J Networks and consulting for small banks, it is this: one-size-fits-all plans do not fit all. Different industries, different risk postures, different legacy baggage.
It’s as if you’re driving a family sedan vs. a race car — both will get you there, but they need different care and feeding, and you’ll drive them a little differently. Security offerings should meet your business, not the latest product, press release.
Wrap-Up: A Message From My Desk to Your Network
Anyway, here I am after coffee number three, still perky but feeling a little sentimental. Cybersecurity is no abstract concept. It’s a tangle of hardware quirks, old habits, modern attacks and human error.
But whether you’re revamping your zero-trust architecture, training your staff on how to use passwords, or simply configuring firewalls and servers — remember that experience counts for a lot. That combination of old-school network know-how and forward threat awareness? That’s what keeps them from getting hacked.
And sometimes, you simply have to trust your gut more than some shiny new gadget. Because when it’s security we’re talking about, the smartest tools, in the final analysis, are those you can understand.
Less panicking calls, smarter defenses, and, dare I say, a fourth coffee soon.