Firewalls, ACLs, VPNs, IDS/IPS, NAC and 802.1X, Zero Trust and micro-segmentation, MFA, and the network-hardening controls that turn a working network into a defensible one.
Every device and protocol in this module builds directly on the hardware, addressing, switching, and routing fluency this program already established — a firewall rule and an ACL both trace straight back to the subnetting skills from Module 4, and switch-level hardening controls like DHCP snooping and BPDU Guard extend the Layer 2 behavior Module 5 already covered. Security here is not a separate network bolted onto the one this program has been building — it's a set of layered policies and controls applied to that same fabric.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why no single control — not a firewall, not a strong password policy — is ever treated as sufficient on its own, and how firewalls, VPNs, IDS/IPS, NAC, and Zero Trust each close a different, specific gap the others leave open.