Computer networking in Cyber security

Question

Discuss how computer networking is important and useful for Cyber Security

Answer 1

Computer networking is of utmost importance in cybersecurity because of all the ways networking infrastructure could be exploited if it is either misconfigured or lacks defense in depth. Many cyberattacks are successful for reasons as simple as a poor networking setup or lack of protection (see antivirus, firewalls, IDS, IPS, SIEM, among others)

A well protected computer network has decent subnetting across its devices so that devices belonging to a certain department are segmented off from devices that belong to other departments. Furthermore, it has multiple security mechanisms so that if one fails, the next one takes over, and so on. For example, an antivirus might not always catch the download of a novel malware; however, an IPS may stop the malware from doing the worst possible damage when it detects increased use of network bandwidth within a subnet.

For this reason, it is highly important that those entering the cybersecurity workforce have an understanding of how computer networks function and how they can be secured.