The Great Kiwi Cyber Heist: How Network Segmentation Saved the Day

As a small business owner in New Zealand, you pride yourself on the tight-knit community you’ve built with your customers and employees. But as the world becomes more connected through technology, your business becomes increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats.

One particularly devastating type of attack is known as a “cyber heist,” where hackers infiltrate a network and steal sensitive data or disrupt operations. In 2017, a cyber heist hit New Zealand hard, with the government reporting that over 100 businesses were affected.

But there is a way to protect your business from such attacks: network segmentation.

Network segmentation is the practice of dividing a computer network into smaller, isolated subnetworks, or segments. This makes it harder for attackers to move laterally within a network and gain access to sensitive data.

One way to implement network segmentation is through the use of virtual local area networks (VLANs). These allow you to group devices together and create barriers between different segments of your network. For example, you might have a VLAN for your point-of-sale system, another for your servers, and another for your employee devices.

Another way to segment your network is through the use of firewalls and access control lists (ACLs). Firewalls act as a gatekeeper, allowing only authorized traffic to pass through to your network. ACLs allow you to specify which devices or users have access to certain resources.

By segmenting your network, you create a “defense in depth” strategy that makes it much harder for attackers to infiltrate your systems. This can save you not only the financial cost of a cyber heist, but also the time and effort it takes to recover from such an attack.

So don’t wait until it’s too late – contact us to help you implement network segmentation today and sleep soundly knowing that your business is secure.