System Administrator Appreciation Day
“SysAdmins are the gurus behind the scenes that keep us moving ahead. Home or business, keeping our lives in synch starts and stops with these hardworking folks. Ransomware, phishing attacks, viruses—cloud migrations, software/hardware updates, infrastructure architecture, website accessibility…want me to go on!! SysAdmins are constantly on the move in an always learning profession to keep us protected and our businesses/home lives running smoothly.” – Ken Barth, CEO of Catalogic Software.
The team at Catalogic would like to thank our IT Manager, Dawuan Myers, for his continuous help on all ends of our business. Check out Dawuan’s Q&A and learn from his experiences:
What is the day-to-day security part of your job?
Security is a big part of what I do every day. I spend a lot of my day doing what is necessary to keep our systems safe. We want to ensure we stay ahead of the curve to prevent ransomware attacks.
What actions have you taken for phishing prevention?
We have scheduled malware scanning on all our critical systems. We went from scanning once a day to scanning multiple times daily. We also train our users on what to do when they receive messages that look suspicious as most phishing attacks originate through email.
How did the work-from-home transition affect your job role?
The WFH (Work from home) transition was a bit tough in the beginning. In IT, you are so used to interacting with people face-to-face. Going from face-to-face interaction to interacting more on Microsoft Teams and email was a bit challenging. It took some time to adjust to this “new normal.”
What is the most challenging part of your job?
It is always a challenge to keep up with the security patches that are released daily. I often receive vulnerability alerts for the various applications that we use. We have systems in place that allow us to auto-patch most of our systems. However, there are a few systems that require manual updates.
Sysadmins are responsible for a wide range of duties, but what are the most essential?
With ransomware attacks at an all-time high, communicating with our users, making sure we are always aware and alert, as well as keeping our systems up to date is extremely important.
Make sure you show your appreciation to all System Administrators today!
