First, what do engineers do? They design, analyze, invent, code, build, and create to solve problems (MTU). They are problem-solvers who must understand and tangle with different constraints a device may have or time to design the program. Furthermore, they are professionals who use their knowledge to build the world. They work in various industries, such as technology, construction, and manufacturing. They are needed everywhere. However, today, we will be focusing on a technology engineer.
Now, how do they make networks safer? First, an engineer had to create encryption and hashes to secure data and passwords. Without those, everything would be in plaintext on the internet. Then, there are firewalls, subnetting, port security, and IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Those are just a few things engineers had to design and implement in a network to make it safer. Furthermore, engineers must understand a network’s design because they need to implement switches, firewalls, and other networking devices. When engineers understand a network, they can segment it to protect data better and make it harder for an attacker to navigate it.
A network security engineer implements virus protection, pen-tests the network, and secures data. Now, they also need to consider cloud security because more companies are moving their data to the cloud, and they still need to secure it. Engineers will face new challenges as technology evolves and must adapt their expertise to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Furthermore, they must ensure the integrity and confidentiality of data transmitted throughout the network. Currently, this can be done with next-gen firewalls that protect multiple OSI model layers on one device.
They also protect a network by taking baselines. Baselines help an organization see what day-to-day is like, allowing them to detect abnormalities in the network. These are crucial for network administrators because how would they know something is wrong or not working correctly?