Question

The servers for the company are all virtual machines and hosted on the same hypervisor. You need to keep users in all other departments from accessing the virtual servers used by the finance department. Which of the following technologies should you use to logically isolate the network?

1) Virtual Private Network (VPN)
2) Firewall
3) Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
4) Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN)

Answer 1

The correct technology for logically isolating the network for the finance department's servers from other departments is a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN). It allows for segmentation of the network, enhancing security by limiting access.

Step-by-step explanation:

To logically isolate the network and keep users in other departments from accessing the virtual servers used by the finance department, the appropriate technology to use would be a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN). A VLAN allows for the segmentation of a physical network into multiple logical networks, thereby allowing devices to be grouped together even if they are not connected to the same network switch. This grouping ensures that communications between devices in a VLAN are handled within that VLAN, increasing security by limiting access to sensitive data and resources to only those users within the VLAN.

While a Virtual Private Network (VPN) could also separate traffic, its primary use case is to secure communications over the internet to a remote network. A firewall can restrict access to network resources based on IP addresses or applications, but it does not inherently segregate network traffic. An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is designed to detect and respond to malicious traffic, not to segregate networks.