When it comes to your network and its security, you cannot give all of your users access to all of your assets. It’s just not a good practice, and doing so can potentially put your resources at risk. Let’s discuss how network segmentation can make a world of difference for the integrity of your network and the data found on it.
Explaining Network Segmentation
Network segmentation can best be described as the practice of segmenting your business’ network into different parts with the intention of protecting its various resources.
To use a practical example, consider how a bank might be set up. The bank isn’t just secured at the front door; it’s also secured at various points within the building, including security cameras and multiple locked doors, safety deposit boxes, and vaults, all of which require different keys to access.
Network segmentation works in the same way, providing multiple different opportunities to partition off various parts of your network for authentication and access control. This helps to handle not just external threats, but internal ones as well. It’s just one major component of a zero-trust architecture model, and it’s an important one.
How Does Network Segmentation Protect Your Business?
Network segmentation works by keeping certain people based on roles and responsibilities away from specific data on your infrastructure, thereby reducing the risk that it can be compromised or stolen. This helps your business against cybercrime and helps to limit employee access to data they have no business accessing.
For example, you wouldn’t want anyone on your sales team to have access to the personal or private data shared with human resources, and you wouldn’t want any regular employee handling payment information from a client or the financial information for your company’s banking. Each department has its own data that is required for it to function, and you don’t want to put yourself in a compromised situation because you let the wrong employee access the wrong kind of information.
If your business’ network is properly segmented, you can limit access to this information based on user role. Your HR department can have access to all of the records they need to do their jobs, and the same goes for accounting, IT, or any other part of your organization. This is especially important for positions like executives and IT administrators, who might have super admin access to the network, thereby granting considerable permissions for the entire network. Imagine if that account got hacked and used against you; you don’t want to think about it.
Let Us Help to Protect Your Network
Bevlin can help your business handle all of its issues related to network security. To learn more, contact us at 781-679-0172.
