Protecting Your Data is Easier Through Network Segmentation

As Miguel de Cervantes wrote in Don Quixote, “...is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket.” It was wise advice then, and it’s wise advice now—especially when it comes to your business’ network and your data security.

Let’s explore the concept of network segmentation, and how it can help to protect your business.

First of All: What is Network Segmentation?

Network segmentation, or the act of segmenting your network into different parts, is a practice intended to help protect different resources.

Think about a bank, for instance, and the safety deposit boxes held within it. It isn’t as though the bank is only secured at the front door, is it? No—the front door is locked, sure, but there are also security cameras watching the inside, with assorted additional locked doors providing obstacles, with the vault door heavily secured and all the safety deposit boxes inside also locked up tight, requiring multiple keys to open them.

Network segmentation effectively does the same in regards to your business’ infrastructure. Firewalls, authentication requirements, and assorted other access controls are all used to accomplish this segmentation…which both helps protect data from external threats as well as internal overreach or malice.

If you’ve ever heard of a zero-trust architecture, network segmentation is a big part of that.

How Can Network Segmentation Protect My Business?

It’s simple—by restricting different areas of your network to certain people based on their roles or work responsibilities, you reduce the risk that different data or resources will be accessed by those who shouldn’t. Not only does this help harden your business against cybercrime, it also helps to keep your employees from accessing data they have no reason to access.

For instance, let’s presume that one of your employees works making sprockets, another works to sell the sprockets, another works to distribute the sprockets, and you have HR working to keep the entire sprocket-making system running by handling employee needs. Naturally, each of these departments has its own data, as well as data that needs to be shared amongst the different departments.

If your sprocket-making business didn’t segment its network, your sprocket-producing employee would not only have access to the documents they need to create the sprockets, they would also be able to access every other department’s documents…including the personal and financial information that HR has on the rest of the team.

Yikes.

However, if your sprocket-producing business’ network was properly segmented, this wouldn’t be an issue. Your employee in charge of production, for instance, would only have access to the documents and data that their production-based responsibilities required. The same would go for your sprocket salesperson, your sprocket distributor, and yes, your HR person. Not only does this help keep your team focused on their individual tasks, it also helps prevent a larger cybersecurity incident by ensuring that one person or department’s vulnerability doesn’t enable access to the entire network.

We’re Here to Help You Segment Your Network, and More!

Give us a call at (217) 428-6449 to learn more about what we can do to help your business in both its operations and its security!