In February 2006, I got a call from Steve Saunders, founder and editor of Light Reading, who had an idea. He and a couple of other editors planned to start a new publication about IT security – a publication that would be very different than anything else the infosec industry had seen before. He wanted to know if I wanted in on it.

On May 1, 2006 – 10 years ago this week -- Dark Reading was launched. Wow, were we in for a wild ride. Dark Reading is now a part of UBM, working every day with other important industry communities, including InformationWeek, Black Hat, Interop, and Network Computing. And we're still a very different type of industry publication.

In the past decade, the IT security industry has seen everyday changes that would seem like earthquakes in other industries. We’ve seen the emergence of botnets that were bigger than some service provider networks. We’ve seen single breaches that affected billions of end users. We’ve seen vulnerabilities that affected not only whole industries, but the very fabric of the Internet.

The attackers have changed. Over the last decade, the face of the hacker has evolved from the nerdy teenager to the organized criminal, the political hacktivist, the state-sponsored hacking team. And their methods are as varied as their motivations.

The nature of the security profession has changed, too. We’ve gone from guards at the gates to online detectives, constantly searching for that one unseen attack hiding deep in our code. Signatures gave way to behavior. Perimeter security gave way to a risk-based approach. And the IT security person – once sequestered in a small cube in the data center – now is part of some of business’ most crucial risk discussions.

For most security professionals, today’s issues have to do with the future: the next attack, the next vulnerability, the next compromise of critical data. That’s as it should be. But periodically, it makes sense to look back at where we’ve been – where we failed, what we’ve accomplished, and what we’ve learned. Looking back sometimes helps us understand where we’re going.

For 10 years, Dark Reading has had the good fortune to document the many changes and developments that have happened in infosec – the successes, the failures, the things that changed and the things that sometimes, regrettably, never changed.

Over the next month, with the help of Dark Reading’s many great writers and contributors, we will attempt to remember this past decade and the lessons we learned from it. You’ll see stories on some of the biggest breaches and vulnerabilities that challenged the industry. You’ll see articles on some of the people who changed security thinking, and some of the sea changes that altered the landscape. And you’ll hear from some of the industry’s top experts – including some of Dark Reading’s original contributors -- on where we’ve been and where we’re going.

We hope you’ll enjoy this month’s retrospectives, presented alongside our usual fare of the latest threats, breaches, and defense trends. We hope you’ll take the time to help us remember where the security industry has been – and perhaps use our search engine to go back and take your own trip down memory lane.

Here’s to the last 10 years – and to making the most out the next 10.

Gain insight into the latest threats and emerging best practices for managing them. Attend the Security Track at Interop Las Vegas, May 2-6. Register now!