Unsecured networks may include but are not limited to, the internet or any local area network. Air Gapping: An Exact DefinitionĪir gapping is the act of isolating a computer or other device from any other devices which happen to be connected to an unsecured network. With that, let us begin with a precise definition of air gapping. As such, it should be but one part of a broader security strategy that, as a whole, is designed to keep out malware or prevent attacks on important computers. Even air gapping, powerful as it is, can be bypassed under the right circumstances. Throughout this discussion, however, a certain caveat should be maintained: No cyber security mechanism is utterly foolproof. It is the latter because it deliberately eschews the use of complicated “technical” solutions to ensure security.īelow, we will provide a comprehensive discussion of air gapping - of what it is, how it works, what its strengths and weaknesses are, what led cyber security professionals to introduce and implement the concept, and a few real-world examples of it in action. It is the former because it provides a very high level of security - so high that it is common to see it used in things like military intelligence, critical infrastructure, and other areas of overriding sociopolitical importance. Paradoxically, an air gap is both extremely sophisticated and extremely simple. For the sake of security, it may sometimes be necessary to forgo the benefits of networking. In especially extreme circumstances, it might be necessary to entirely physically isolate the machine from all other machines and do all data handling or computation on it locally. In situations like this, the only acceptable measure is to make sure that the machine in question is not connected to any other machines - at least not over any network that does not itself have some extremely stringent security protocols in place. Network security professionals have devised an extraordinary wealth of tools to keep potential attackers at bay - from encryption, VPNs, and various multi-factor authentication schemes to rigid network segmentation and strict zero-trust networking methodologies - but sometimes, certain machines must house data that are so important that no risk of a remote attack, however small, can be tolerated. One of the banes of the computer revolution has been that as our networks grow more integrated and more powerful, they, in another sense, grow weaker - for the more devices that a computer is connected to, the more attack vectors there are by which hackers can bore their way into it and do damage. Because devices can perform digital handshakes, we can fit all of the information accumulated throughout human history into our pockets.īut behind every great boon, there seems to lurk a bane - often enough, a bane that is not immediately noticed. Because computers can exchange data packets, we can automate and calibrate the delivery of energy resources to wherever they are needed. Our modern technological civilization - with its smart thermostats and streaming platforms, its GPS systems that guide us to where we need to go, and its health monitors that keep our heart rates and respiration within healthy parameters - would be unimaginable if computers could not send and receive electromagnetic signals. For one thing, the benefits of computer networking have been enormous. Of course, a great many complications must be added to that lapidary statement, complications from which arise all of the things that make cyber security the difficult, puzzling, and endlessly interesting field that it is. Indeed, it might accurately be said that cyber security is just a series of ways to make devices, or the important data that happen to be stored on them, harder to reach. The entire field of cyber security, with all of its principles, techniques, and methods, proceeds with that fact lurking always in the background. That, in a single, simple sentence, expresses what is perhaps the core truth of network and computer security. If a device can be reached, it can be hacked. What is an Air Gap?: Complete Explanation
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