The receptionist has the office Wi-Fi password on a sticky note. Visitors, contractors, the printer technician and a sales rep who dropped by in 2023 all have it. Every one of their devices — whatever is on them — joined the same network as your server. Nobody meant any harm. That is rather the point.
Why it matters
Once a device is on your office network it can see the other devices on it. A visitor's infected laptop does not need to break in; it is already in. Segmentation is the fix: guests on one network that reaches the internet and nothing else, staff on another, cameras and printers on a third, servers behind all of them.
What good looks like
- A guest network with its own name, a password that changes, and no path to anything internal.
- Staff devices on a separate network with proper authentication.
- Printers, cameras, door controllers and anything "smart" quarantined on their own segment — they are rarely patched and are favourite footholds.
- The office password nowhere near a sticky note.
The Spicsoft version
Segmentation is part of every network we build, and the firewall enforces it rather than trusting people to remember. Visitors get Wi-Fi that works; the accounting server gets a network no visitor has ever seen. A small, invisible wall — which is the best kind.
