Networking Basics for Cyber

Why networking matters

Many attacks and outages are really networking problems (or look like them). You do not need to be a network engineer—but you do need the basics.

Core concepts

• IP address: identifies a device on a network
• Port: identifies a service on that device (like a door)
• Protocol: rules for communication (TCP, UDP, HTTP, DNS)

DNS (names to addresses)

DNS turns names (like example.com) into IP addresses.

If DNS is wrong or compromised:

• you may go to the wrong site
• security tools may not work correctly

Quick check (3 minutes)

1. What does port 443 usually mean?
2. Why would attackers care about DNS?