Microsegmentation (Networks and Cybersecurity)

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What Does Microsegmentation (Networks and Cybersecurity) Mean?

Microsegmentation refers to the practice of splitting up a unified system into many isolated segments. This can be helpful in marketing and business, and also in IT. Microsegmentation in IT often refers to the segmentation of a network for better network protection.

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Techopedia Explains Microsegmentation (Networks and Cybersecurity)

Microsegmentation for a network can be done in various ways. One type of micro-segmentation is user micro-segmentation, where an individual user may only have access to a small part of a network instead of the whole thing. Other types of micro-segmentation put up gates or partitions between areas of network data traffic, for example, to split up connections between dedicated network nodes.

The cybersecurity philosophy of microsegmentation is that by creating these different gates and channels, an attack is less able to reverberate inside of the system. Engineers see micro-segmentation as a set of firewalls to protect areas of the system and limit the negative effects of things like malware and Trojan horse attacks. Micro-segmentation can be powered by some virtualization tools and built into complex virtual systems or other networks.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.