Gartner points out the security you don't need

"In IT security, do the stuff that's quick and easy: Passwords, training and awareness in the areas that matter. The basic half dozen technologies you need are there," Smith said.

Perhaps most importantly, an IT manager needs to demonstrate to the executives within the company how to take better advantage of the systems it already has through the use of security.

"We have an appalling absence of basic management metrics for our trade. If you can measure a problem accurately, you have the Holy Grail," Smith said. "But what you also must have is a champion at the board level. Without senior level support, nothing will ever happen and you are doomed."

E.M.F. Coyer, infrastructure consultant with the Dutch company Wegener ICT Kranten BV, welcomed the advice from both Wheatman and Smith. Coyer said that she spends much of her time trying to sort though the variety of software security options as efficiently as she can, and that one of the primary reasons for attending the Gartner event was to keep up to date on security trends. But another priority was to learn how to speak to the executives within her company in a language that they can understand.

"It is important to hear the technical stuff, to know what the trends are, but what I find most useful is the message, and how to deliver that message in a way my bosses and the other nontechnical people within the company can understand and can support," Coyer said.