Network segmentation in Cybersecurity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Understanding Network Segmentation

📖 Scenario: You are working in a company that wants to improve its network security. The IT team decides to divide the company network into smaller parts to control access and reduce risks.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple explanation and example of network segmentation by creating a list of network segments, setting a security level for each, and showing how devices are assigned to these segments.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list called network_segments with three segments: 'HR', 'Finance', and 'Guest'

Create a dictionary called security_levels that assigns security levels to each segment: 'HR': 'High', 'Finance': 'Very High', 'Guest': 'Low'

Create a dictionary called devices that assigns devices to segments: 'Laptop1' in 'HR', 'Laptop2' in 'Finance', and 'Phone1' in 'Guest'

Add a final step that lists all devices with their assigned segment and security level

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Network segmentation is used in companies to improve security by limiting access between different parts of the network. This helps prevent attackers from moving freely if they gain access.

💼 Career

Understanding network segmentation is important for cybersecurity professionals, network administrators, and IT support staff to design and maintain secure networks.

1

Create the list of network segments

Create a list called network_segments with these exact strings: 'HR', 'Finance', and 'Guest'

Cybersecurity

# Create the list of network segments
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets [] to create a list and separate items with commas.

2

Assign security levels to each segment

Create a dictionary called security_levels with these exact key-value pairs: 'HR': 'High', 'Finance': 'Very High', and 'Guest': 'Low'

Cybersecurity

network_segments = ['HR', 'Finance', 'Guest']
# Create the dictionary of security levels
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary with keys and values separated by colons.

3

Assign devices to network segments

Create a dictionary called devices with these exact key-value pairs: 'Laptop1': 'HR', 'Laptop2': 'Finance', and 'Phone1': 'Guest'

Cybersecurity

network_segments = ['HR', 'Finance', 'Guest']
security_levels = {'HR': 'High', 'Finance': 'Very High', 'Guest': 'Low'}
# Create the dictionary of devices assigned to segments
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary to map each device to its network segment.

4

List devices with their segment and security level

Use a for loop with variables device and segment to iterate over devices.items(). Inside the loop, create a variable level that gets the security level from security_levels using segment. Then, create a list called device_info that stores strings in the format: "Device: {device}, Segment: {segment}, Security Level: {level}" for each device.

Cybersecurity

network_segments = ['HR', 'Finance', 'Guest']
security_levels = {'HR': 'High', 'Finance': 'Very High', 'Guest': 'Low'}
devices = {'Laptop1': 'HR', 'Laptop2': 'Finance', 'Phone1': 'Guest'}
# Create a list device_info with formatted strings for each device
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a for loop to go through each device and find its segment and security level. Use f-strings to format the output.