My Journey Through Network Administration and Cybersecurity

I begin as a network admin back in 1993, where networking was primarily about managing multiplexers to carry voice and data over those old PSTN lines. Ah, the days when all the cables were a spaghetti mess and you’d think anything from someone sneezing near the rack would make everything fall into pieces. But working as that made me be realistic around how networks are in reality(; not what the books say).

Jump ahead a few years and I have been around for some of the worst vulnerabilities in cybersecurity history… Slammer worm — it hit networks so fast you could say patch your SQL server about as quickly! It was a wake-up call for me as I witnessed that chaos unfold — to just how fragile systems truly are.

Today I own a security firm, P J Networks Pvt Ltd, supporting business and banks to enhance their digital defenses. Most recently I helped three banks migrate their zero-trust architecture. Now I hasten to note that the zero-trust implementations of which I speak aren’t just fashionable buzzwords affixed to marketing decks; rather, they are real-world, battle-proven exercises in making us really think who (and what) we trust on our networks — and why.

And speaking of hands-on, I just returned from DefCon where they had the hardware hacking village up again! There really is nothing better then when all these concepts of physical security get hacked open and thrown around like a bad recipe in the kitchen. Security and hardware: there are always new—and frightening—things to learn.

Experience Trumps Buzzwords Every Time

But — and here is the thing about cybersecurity today: everyone has shiny tools hawking their fancy AI-detection-before-they-even-happen magical threat intelligence. Which might also be the case, I hear you say, but it seems that AI powers an awful lot of solutions and based on my experience in this industry for the past decade, I’ve seen a lot of solutions wrapped up in it to cover for bad engineering or because no thought has been put into where the real threats lie. You cannot simply set up and let it ride. A true Outlook makeover calls for due diligence, and that means exercising a little bit of your own street smarts.

Pretend you’re in a foreign AI-powered model, auto-pilot car. Yeah, neat — but when push came to shove and you hit 70 mph on the highway, would you trust your life to this thing? Or do you prefer to understand what all those flashing lights actually mean, holding onto the wheel with both hands and be prepared to take back control when necessary? I would compare this to an autopilot car being driven by mostly untrained drivers and security tools with little comprehension, at best.

Here Are Some Of What I Have Learned Over The Years

• Patching is everything. Patch early, patch often. It taught a million-dollar lesson on the potential scope of damage that one unpatched hole in one SQL server could do. However, the catch is that patching also doesn’t only mean to run updating haphazardly which means knowing your context and having a rollback plan you know works.
• Zero-trust is more than a checkbox, zero trust is not a tool. This is a shift in the organizational mindset. And because I bailed out those banks, we went and terrorized the unspoken system of trust they kind of mentioned existed while we were breaking them all down. All of these requests continued to be validated, rather than just at login.
• Hardware security: an overlooked essential. I watched attacks that ignored software entirely at DefCon’s hardware hacking village – if your firewall is solid but you have a wide-open USB port, you’re screwed.
• Password policy – those make me insane! Confession: I am not in favor staff regular password changes or complicated width of characters. They need to prompt users to make passwords that are long but tough. Instead a number of policies can lead to Password123 scribbled on post-its. But if you want my opinion…MFA with sane password complexity is the answer.

Takeaways What You Can Do Today

Short on time, here is all I recommend.

• Change password manually access software and hardware for change.
• Review patch your software and hardware regularly.
• Adopt and strengthen zero-trust as a central principle around all network access where the focus is not just on outside in, but inside out.
• Remember that the physical hardware also has security implications, especially when it comes to endpoints and network hardware.
• Reevaluate password policies to make them more user-friendly while adding MFA.
• Avoid any AI security tool that can miraculously fix or protect your business in one swoop.

Zero Trust Architecture Not Just A Hype And Here Is Why

In banks, zero trust is not just an IT project it is a strategic business initiative. End to end — We all talk about it, yet so few actually do it. Here’s what I’ve seen:

• Segment your network aggressively. Only necessary right to all.
• Identity and device health as gatekeepers Hard-bop isn’t necessarily grittier than some of the more sunshiney jazz you can hear, but it certainly doesn’t trust anybody by default even inside its own perimeter.
• Continuous monitoring—if it seems weird, flag it now. No exceptions.
• Behavior analytics: Instead of static rules, use behavior analytics to detect patterns of abnormal activity.

You destroy this old assumption of everything inside the corporate network is good and make your infrastructure secure against both internal, but also external attacks.

Read More Why I Still Fight for Firewalls and Servers

But I digress all the book covers these days are on cloud and everybody forgets that your firewall or physical servers still matter. A network with improperly configured and updated firewalls is equivalent to an open target. The thought of cloud security is nice but If you thinking to drop your on-prem defenses then all I can say buckle up for an Headache which size would be as severe as Slammer worm harm done.

Also—servers. Even in the age of this cloud, so many mission-critical functions still run on physical servers behind those firewalls. I have seen cases where weak physical security has enabled attackers to pull drives in under a minute and drop them into another system.

If you are still here, let me give image analogy: If the Firewall is your stove burner, security software is the cooking pan; if stovetop firewall is nonfunctional or off you cannot cook you cannot keep device safe but a saucepan security software doesn’t as well make breakfast without fire stove. The pot and pan are the servers. Cherish both or you’re just asking for trouble.

Final Thoughts From My Desk

Call me old school, I guess. Perhaps because I matured during the age of basic network services and spent countless hours scraping off more worms, exploits than victims sanded today. But experience means something. Feeling the ghost of well-worn security choices, still plumbing the depths my networking-admin instincts to find evil.

However, I am no more stuck in the past. I, too, am a technology embracer — with caution. Yet, I dare those of you who so whole-heartedly believe in AI as it is today securing your assets without some deep human intervention. I am not a zero-trust cool bro but I do love me some zero-trust from seeing what happens when you don’t.

Regardless of whether you are a bank with billions in assets or an exploring business: Here is what I want you to do!

• Invest in seasoned security practitioners who have weathered through an actual attack.
• Do not buy all pop products Test, validate, and understand.
• Understand that true security takes time – its a process NOT A BAND-AID SOLUTION.
• And please, do not underestimate the basics; firewalls, patching, zero trust—it is all important.Up to a point. Oh yes… tell me more about hardware security,

Alright. I need another coffee. However, I leave you with this — security is like making a great meal. You can not just buy expensive ingredients and throw in hoping it tastes good. At the very least, it requires finesse, timing and some well-placed old-fashioned savvy.

Stay vigilant,

Sanjay Seth
P J Networks Pvt Ltd