Let's continue with looking at network security for the
Certified in Cybersecurity certification.
We'll take a look here at network infrastructure.
Infrastructure includes things like power.
Obviously, our networks require power to run, as well as
physical security for those networks as well.
When we look at power,
the goal, of course, is that the network equipment will have
clean and reliable power so it can continue to operate and
provide high levels of availability.
We always want to watch out for single points of failure. For example,
I could have redundant routers,
I could have redundant equipment, but if they're on the
same power supply then that becomes a single point of
failure for both of them anyway.
Very often, in order to keep our equipment running and
prepare for something like a commercial power failure, we'll
have an Uninterruptible Power Supply.
A UPS, or Uninterruptible Power Supply, provides power so even
if there is just the slightest variation,
hopefully it can keep the power levels steady.
But we want to make sure the UPS has enough capacity to
run all of the equipment that's on it.
We should test the UPS on occasion to make sure it's
functioning properly and watch out for when it's getting a
little bit long in the tooth or old.
We'll often back up the UPS using a generator,
maybe a diesel generator, for example, that can provide
power in case of a long‑term outage.
When we look at physical network security,
we often put cabling into conduit. This means the cabling is
protected from just an easy break or some type of problem by
putting it into a plastic or a metal sheath.
We also want to make sure we have redundancy.
Maybe we have two network entrances into the building so that
if someone was doing some work outside,
they cut the cable, there is still an alternate cable path that comes in.
It is important that our wiring closets,
the risers where all of our wires go, is also protected and locked.
We don't want someone getting in there and being able to damage our network
distribution or get access and be able to tap into our lines either. This is
especially important in a multi‑tenant building where we have more than one
person who could be using that same wiring closet.
We need to be protected from fire.
Now, we often say there's three parts to fire.
First of all,
let's not have one. Can we prevent it? But it is really
important that if there is a fire, we're able to detect it as soon as possible.
If I can detect a fire very quickly,
I can very often contain it and then suppress that fire or put that fire out.
If the fire gets too established, then it may be impossible to do so.
In the case of fire, we often see that we'll use things like fire
extinguishers, we will use either handheld or maybe some type of a flooding
system that may spray some type of a fire suppressant such as argon, in the
old days you used halon, carbon dioxide, and we have to look at what would
be suitable in our environment.
When we look at secure wireless,
we know that wireless is one of the most common ways we do communicate today.
It's flexible and really supports a very mobile and
flexible business type of requirement.
We then use wireless local area networks, and these, quite often
are protected using some type of encryption.
Now in the old days, we used Wired Equivalent Privacy,
which, of course, is nowhere near secure enough.
Then we saw the development of Wi‑Fi Protected Access, WPA.
That still was better, but not as good as moving to WPA2
and WPA3. When we deal with optical,
we can use, in this case, we're not talking about fiber,
but we're talking about something using either infrared or some type of a laser
between buildings so we have a transceiver on two buildings that can actually
broadcast data to one another over a light stream.
This works well,
especially when it saves me from having to dig up an old street or
someone to put cable across, but it can be affected by things like
fog, for example. We also have wireless communications using things
like microwave and satellite.
These are line of sight, and so I have to be able to either see the
other microwave dish or I actually have to be able to see the
satellite, and that can be a problem if I'm in an area with a lot of
trees or other buildings or obstructions.