I recently published a piece in Dark Reading covering the network security challenges of M&A activity. As we ease the restrictions put in place to combat COVID-19, we’re expecting to see business activity including M&A pick up speed, it’s important that the implications of integrating networks are fully understood to ensure that the expected business benefits are achieved as soon as possible.

Network segmentation is almost as old as computer networking. The evolution of network segmentation went through switches to routers and firewalls, and as modern networks evolved, the ability to better control traffic by operating system native functionality evolved as well. Native controls like IP Tables became lingua franca, alongside access control lists, process isolations, and more. Native controls are not a new concept.

Co-authored by James Robinson and Jeff Kessler As rapidly as wide-area networking (WAN) and remote access strategies with associated technologies are changing, we’re always surprised by the amount of time some security professionals and auditors dedicate to the either/or debate between split tunnel and full tunnel connectivity.

The events of 2020 helped to accelerate the convergence between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) for many organizations. As reported by Help Net Security, for instance, two-thirds of IT and OT security professionals said in a 2020 survey that their IT and OT networks had become more interconnected in the wake of the pandemic.

A network vulnerability assessment is the reviewing and analyzing of an organization’s network infrastructure to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities and network security loopholes. The assessment can be carried out either manually or by using vulnerability analysis software — although the latter is preferred because it’s less susceptible to human error and usually delivers more accurate results.

The security landscape is always changing. New features are coming out all the time, but often backward compatibility is maintained too. What this means is that while the new features may be present and active by default, it's possible for users to be completely unaware of them and continue using the legacy functionality.