The internet (WAN): what it is and how it is attacked
Everything outside your organisation's control.
Also known as
- WAN
- public network
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
Almost everything that reaches you from outside arrives across it. Drawing it explicitly forces the question of what is exposed to it.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Scanning for anything reachable and unpatched
- Guessing passwords on exposed sign-in pages
What reduces it
- Treat everything arriving from it as hostile, and keep an accurate list of what you expose to it
- Review that exposure on a schedule, because it grows without anyone deciding it should
Where it sits
- Group
- Network · The paths traffic travels along.
- Whose side, by default
- Bystander · No relationship with us and no choice in the matter: an unwitting hosting provider, a stranger's compromised machine.
- Catalogue identifier
- internet
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in network
- Routergateway · layer 3Sends information from one network to another, the way a junction sends cars down different roads.
- Switchlayer 2 · LAN switchConnects the devices inside one building or floor, passing each message only to the machine it is addressed to.
- Remote access gatewayVPN · VPN concentrator · remote accessThe door staff use to reach the internal network from outside.
- Address rangeCIDR · subnet · IP rangeA group of numbered addresses on a network, written as a single line such as 192.0.2.0/24 rather than listed one by one.
- Internet network operatorASN · autonomous system · AS number · BGP network · peeringOne organisation's own network on the internet, identified by a number so every other network knows whose it is.
The network group lists all 6 of them side by side.
The internet on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type WAN. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker