“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” was once said by former US President Woodrow Wilson. Any engineer or architect who has ever been involved in network engineering or security would probably agree.

Any change in an organization is hard, but when dealing with network administrators and “managers” that don’t acknowledge the existing problems or how the new solution will solve those problems – you have a real fight ahead of you.

Today’s threat landscape is evolving at such a rapid pace that defense measures from just a few years ago are no longer effective. The recent WannaCry ransomware attack highlights that timely patching against vulnerabilities is one layer of defense. But other defense mechanisms need to be implemented.

Re-architecting networks and implementing a Zero Trust Network Architecture, which compartmentalizes and isolates critical systems and data, along with SSL inspection and using threat intelligence feeds, provides a multilayered approach to protecting your systems.

Even small changes can take time to be adopted, but obstructionists that fight changes by stating “We don’t need that, we’ve been doing it it this way forever”, are just a hindrance to progress in your organization and one day that old method of securing the network or systems will fail and who will have to answer to senior management.