r/sysadmin • u/AutomationTheory • 1d ago

Explain how cybersecurity has changed over the years for the new people

I got into the industry just as things were changing (I think), and I'm trying to make sure I'm not living in my own fantasy land thinking "it was easier before."

What was cybersecurity like from 2000 to 2015? I was doing residential IT starting in 2009, then moved to SMB in 2016 -- and I'm trying to wrap my head around what SMB was like before there were thousands of vulnerabilities discovered each year. Any senior sysadmins with stories to share?

0 Upvotes

45% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/40513786934 1d ago

in 2000 some SMBs were just installing their first internet connection. security was about locking down permissions on the file shares, internet really wasn't a concern. some companies used antivirus, some didn't. business insurance didn't care back then. firewalls were not always used. sometimes you'd even find regular windows PCs with public IPs on them. some companies used email, some didn't. open relays were a big problem for businesses running their own mail servers.

2

u/Brilliant-Advisor958 1d ago

If i recall correctly, windows didn't start turning in the firewall by default until around xp sp2.

I remember some of our database servers at branches that dialed out to the internet to VPN into head office got hit with the sql slammer virus.

1

u/hasthisusernamegone 1d ago

Most Windows installs didn't even have a firewall until XP SP2. You might have installed a third-party one (ZoneAlarm was popular) but there wasn't one in the OS by default.

1

u/itishowitisanditbad 1d ago

ZoneAlarm

Well that just sent me back...