Cyber Defense has More Threats Than History’s Silk Road

One only needs to read a history book or two to demonstrate the very contemporary need for cyber defense and network security devices. The sheer magnitude of the impact that the digital age is having on our ways of life is so profound, and today’s need for network security devices is so great, so unprecedented, and so counter-intuitive, that to illustrate it effectively, analogies seem to serve best.

The “Silk Road” stands out in history not only for its scale, but also for the efforts and ingenuity it demanded, and for its vast impact on culture and the exchange of ideas. As such, the silk road offers an illustrative example of a vast vision, a profusion of threats and challenges, and of the ingenuity called forth to overcome them, such as the ingenuity of the network security devices you can call upon from The Connectivity Center.

Not Built or Invented, but Discovered

Like the World Wide Web, the silk road was more nearly discovered than built, at least from a European’s point-of-view. By the time Marco Polo set out on his exotic, exploratory journey to China in the year 1272, the overland routes from Venice and Constantinople to Beijing had been in use for more than a thousand years. Polo was far from the first. Rather, he was the first to write about his experiences on the silk road, which reached a wide audience. By the time Marco Polo traveled it, even his brothers had preceded him, and historians suggest the silk road was already 1,400 years old.

Even calling it the silk road fails to span its true significance. Not merely commercial, these pathways were, for generations, the central nervous system of civilization. Ideas, discoveries, knowledge, philosophy, customs, cuisine, and prosperity flowed here. Together, these influences composed the world as we know it. Not too long ago, a Broadway costume designer, presenting the costumes for Camelot, told the cast, “This is probably a 6th Century story, but people looked terrible in the 6^th Century. We’re going to set Camelot in the 14^th Century, after the silk road had brought to England the beauty we think of as Medieval.”

And beauty wasn’t the only civilizing cargo. The spices that first enabled Western Europeans to prolong the edibility of meat, adding protein to a previously tenuous, subsistence diet, traveled the silk road. What would European civilization consist of, what shapes would it have taken, if people never got any distance from a hand-to-mouth existence? There is simply no way of knowing. And thankfully, no need to know.

It was a road, yes, in fact a route with several variations and options. More than that, the silk road was a way of life. Extending thousands of miles through every kind of weather and terrain, through cultures already ancient and vastly diverse, the silk road ran risks that were the same, in their own ways, as the imperative needs that leaders recognize today for network security devices.

The bold, resourceful people willing to use the silk road – for commerce, for communication, for enlightenment and exploration – composed a many-faceted culture of their own. From merchants to warriors to scholars – and all the people it took to serve them – the silk road had in common with the current digital age these same requirements, and like the digital world, it attracted the people willing and able to meet them.

The Need for Network Security Devices to Guard the New Silk Road

The state of the art in cybersecurity today is somewhat like navigating the silk road with a vast portion unguarded. It’s as if a whole region had no refuge, no Samarkand in Central Asia, for example, because the physical ports and connections that bring computer networks and data systems to life are today left unguarded, lacking network security devices in most cases.

The estimated $170 billion spent annually on cybersecurity goes almost entirely to software and online solutions, while data ports and network connections – the visible, physical points of access to your vital data and information systems – are wide open. The invisible exposures receive all the attention, while ignoring billions of places where malware, spyware, viruses, and all manner of contamination can gain access.

The utter vulnerability of these visible points of access, without network security devices, is not just theoretical. Far from it. Two of the most successful examples of cyber-sabotage and cyber-espionage were introduced through anonymous flash drives, simply scattered in parking lots. Even the most trusted, best-trained associates don’t hesitate to use a “found thumb drive,” as research studies further prove.

Network security devices, while often overlooked, are not optional. They constitute a vital sector of your overall cybersecurity perimeter today. Of particular interest as you asses your need for network security devices may well be the Smart Keeper series from The Connectivity Center, which features a number of link lock devices.

Our Link Lock connectors and the Link Lock Hub serve not only as secure USB connections, but also lock your components and peripherals so that they cannot be removed without authorized access. The Link Lock Hub is secured using a Smart Keeper USB Port Lock Professional in conjunction with a Smart Keeper USB Port Lock Key.

The Professional Series key comprises an ergonomic, retractable housing with anti-static rubber grip, LED light for low visibility work areas, and dual-retractors – main and peripheral – for reaching port locks in confined spaces. The key patterns are strictly controlled, yet you can order duplicate keys to suit your own security authorization structure.

These options are only a few examples of the essential network security devices you can count on, from The Connectivity Center. Our experience, quality, variety, value, and versatility are at your service. The Connectivity Center offers you network security devices that ensure the continual flow of vital data on which your enterprise depends – and provides protection for the 21^st Century version of the silk road.