In Pictures: 10 hard truths IT must learn to accept

IT concession No. 7: Your network has already been compromised

Everybody wants their networks to be easy to manage and hard to breach. What they usually settle for are racks of security appliances that are hard to manage and easily compromised, says Joe Forjette, senior project manager at Crossbeam.

A smarter approach is to assume your network has already been compromised and design security around that, says Wade Williamson, senior threat analyst at Palo Alto Networks.

"Modern malware has become so pervasive and so adept at hiding within our networks that it is increasingly common for enterprises to assume they have already been breached," he says. Instead of slapping yet another layer of protection, security pros can spend more time looking for where the nasties may be lurking, such as inside an encrypted social network.