Protecting Your IT Environment: Tips from the Trenches

Security threats lurk beneath the surface, and cybercriminals keep finding new ways to compromise the tech environment we hold so dear.

From spear phishing to malware and ransomware, cybercriminals continue finding new types of cyberattacks to compromise businesses. According to a recent cybercrime study, organizations can expect 145 cybersecurity breaches this year, up from 130 in 2017 and an increase of 67% in the last five years.

Security and safety are more important now than ever before as technology continues to evolve and new threats emerge every day. As revealed by the SolarWinds^® IT Trends Report 2019: Skills for Tech Pros of Tomorrow, in the past 12 months, nearly all tech pros in North America have prioritized cultivating skills in security management. As tech pros continue building security skills in daily operations, they should also continually take steps towards implementing basic cyberhygiene. Understanding your IT environment to uncover hidden risks, educating business leaders, leveraging data to show the value of IT efforts, implementing the “right” IT security management tools, and investing in training are key to protecting modern environments from the ever-evolving threat landscape.

Here are some tips, tricks, and scary stories (with happy endings) that members of the SolarWinds THWACK® community have encountered while protecting their IT environments: