We ran a ransomware simulation in our test environment today (nothing complex, just a basic lateral movement scenario) and it spread way faster than I expected.
That triggered a debate in our team. Someone said: “This is why we need micro segmentation.”
I get the general idea, but I’m still not clear on what micro segmentation actually changes day-to-day.
Is it basically the same as VLANs and firewall rules, or is it something different in practice?
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It’s similar in concept, but the scope is different.
VLANs usually split networks into big zones. Micro segmentation focuses on smaller boundaries, like workload-to-workload or app-to-app communication.
So instead of “Prod vs Dev”, you end up with rules like:
That’s what makes a flat network harder to abuse.
What helped us was treating it as a “communication allowlist” exercise.
We first mapped which systems actually need to talk to each other, then enforced only those paths. That cleaned up a lot of accidental exposure, especially internal services that didn’t need to be reachable.
Biggest benefit was reducing uncontrolled east-west traffic without redesigning the whole network.
From the ransomware angle, the value is simple: it blocks lateral movement paths.
Even if one device gets compromised, it can’t automatically reach file shares, management ports, or neighbouring systems unless those connections are explicitly allowed.
Practical way to roll it out is starting with critical assets first (AD, DBs, finance apps), then tightening gradually so you don’t break production traffic.
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