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How Network Security Is Like Gardening

While full groan, this dad joke brings up a surprising similarity between tending a garden and managing network security.

Growing a Secure Network

Just like a garden needs proper planning, care, and maintenance, so does your organization’s network security. When I look at my wife’s vegetable garden and the flower beds at home, I see different items with varying needs, strengths, and vulnerabilities, not unlike the diverse systems and endpoints in your corporate environment.

Think about it: in my garden, I’ve got plants that need extra attention, sturdy perennials that come back year after year with minimal fuss, and delicate annuals that require constant monitoring. Your network likely has legacy systems that need special handling, reliable servers that keep your business running, and new applications that haven’t yet proven their resilience.

Pruning Your Attack Surface

One of the most critical tasks in gardening is pruning—removing dead or excess growth to improve the health of the plant. In cybersecurity, we call this “reducing the attack surface.” Every unnecessary service, unused port, or outdated application is like an overgrown branch that provides attackers with potential entry points.

Network Security	Network Security	Technical Implementation
Disabling unused services	Disabling unused services	Run netstat -tuln to identify listening ports and disable unnecessary services via systemctl or service manager
Pruning overgrowth	Removing unnecessary softwareI	Implement application whitelisting with tools like Microsoft AppLocker or CrowdStrike Falcon
Clearing weeds	Addressing security misconfigurations	Deploy automated configuration management via tools like Chef with security hardening playbooks

When I trim back my hedges, I’m essentially doing what security professionals do when they run vulnerability scanners like Qualys or Tenable Nessus to identify and remediate weaknesses. Both activities create a cleaner, more manageable environment that’s easier to defend.

Watching for Invasive Species

Anyone who battled kudzu or Japanese knotweed knows the havoc invasive species can wreak on a garden. These unwelcome visitors often start small but quickly overwhelm native plants if left unchecked.

In your network, malware and unauthorized access attempts are the invasive species. Like plants that spread through underground runners, sophisticated threats can establish blocks in one system before spreading laterally throughout your environment. This is why monitoring is always needed just like regular garden inspections.

Modern Security Tools for Early Detection
When checking the undersides of leaves for aphids, your security program should implement various tools for checking and monitoring:

• Network Detection and Response (NDR) solutions like Darktrace or Vectra AI to identify unusual traffic patterns
• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools such as SentinelOne or CrowdStrike to spot malicious behavior
• SIEM platforms like Splunk or Microsoft Sentinel to correlate security events across your environment

The 2020 SolarWinds attack is a perfect example of a stealthy “invasive species.” The malicious code remained dormant in the software for months before activating, much like those weed seeds that can lie dormant in soil until conditions are right for growth.

Question for you to Consider: How frequently do you “inspect” your network environment for signs of compromise? Daily? Weekly? Only when something goes wrong?

Layered Security Is Like Companion Planting

Gardeners have long known the benefits of companion planting—placing different plant species near each other to deter pests, improve pollination, or enhance growth. Marigolds keep away certain insects, while tall sunflowers can provide shade for heat-sensitive plants.

These plants are similar to defense-in-depth concepts or a layered defense in cybersecurity. Your firewall, intrusion detection systems, endpoint protection, and user training programs work together, compensating for each other’s weaknesses and creating a more resilient environment than any solution could provide.

[Network Perimeter]
├── External Firewall (Like fence around garden)
│ ├── DMZ (Buffer zone like gravel paths)
│ │ ├── Web Application Firewall (Row cover for exposed services)
│ │ └── Reverse Proxies (Garden structures supporting plants)
│ └── IDS/IPS Systems (Motion detectors/pest deterrents)
├── Internal Network Segments (Separated garden beds)
│ ├── Network Access Control (Gates between garden sections)
│ └── Internal Firewalls (Barriers between plant varieties)
└── Endpoints (Individual plants)
├── Endpoint Protection (Plant-specific pest treatments)
├── Application Control (Growth training/supports)
└── Data Loss Prevention (Root barriers/containment)

It’s crucial to understand that organizations shouldn’t depend on just firewalls or just anti-malware. The 2017 Equifax breach occurred partly because they relied too heavily on a single security tool that was misconfigured and similar to depending on one type of pest control that wasn’t properly applied.

Seasonal Maintenance and Patching

Spring cleanup, summer watering, fall pruning, winter protection—gardening follows predictable seasonal patterns. Similarly, effective cybersecurity requires regular, scheduled maintenance activities like patching cycles, access reviews, security training, and phishing assessments.

Cybersecurity Seasonal Calendar

Season	Garden Activity	Security Tools	Tools / Practices
Spring	Soil prep	Security architecture review	Threat modeling with STRIDE or PASTA methodologies
Summer	Regular Watering, Pest Control	Continuous monitoring, patch management	Automated patch management via WSUS, Ivanti or Automox
Fall	Harvesting	Security assessments, penetration testing	3rd party support with red team vendors
Winter	Planning	Incident Response planning, table exercises	Scenario planning with TTX groups or NIST

Missing a patch cycle is like forgetting to water your plants during a heatwave. You might get away with it once, but make it a habit, and it is inviting disaster. Those security updates may seem monotonous, but they’re providing essential nutrients to your security posture.

Measuring Your Garden’s Growth: Security Metrics

How do you know if your cybersecurity garden is thriving? Just as gardeners track growth, flowering times, and yield, security professionals need meaningful metrics:

• Mean Time to Detect (MTTD): How quickly it takes to identify threats
• Mean Time to Respond (MTTR): How fast you address issues
• Vulnerability Management Efficiency: Percentage of critical vulnerabilities patched within the Service Level Agreement
• Security Awareness Effectiveness: Phishing simulation click rates, reporting rates

The Human Element

Here’s where the dad joke connects to cybersecurity: networking isn’t just about technology—it’s about people. Flowers “branch out” to form connections, and successful security professionals do the same.

Building relationships across IT, operations, development, and business units creates a collaborative environment for proper security. When the security team is seen as helpful gardeners tending the corporate landscape rather than obstacles or the “department of no,” everyone benefits.

Building Security Champions

One effective approach towards growing a strong security culture is through the use of a “security champions” program. Comparing it to a garden, it’s like having dedicated gardeners responsible for different sections of a community garden.

To setup a program, here is a quick step to implement a program:

1. Identify security-minded individuals in each department
2. Provide them with specialized or additional training
3. Include them in security discussions and decisions
4. Have them advocate for security best practices within their teams

Question for you to consider: Who are the natural “gardeners” in your organization that could be cultivated as security champions?

Cultivating Security Awareness

Just as we learn how to identify poison ivy and which garden tools require extra caution, we need to cultivate security awareness throughout our organizations. People who understand security hygiene basics become active participants in protecting company assets rather than accidental vulnerabilities.

Practical Security Training Approaches

Consider these techniques to make your security awareness program more effective:

• Microlearning modules: These are short, focused training sessions on specific topics to help users more frequently or when they put the organization at risk.
• Simulated phishing campaigns: It’s not a gotcha moment, but a teaching moment to safely assess your user’s recognition of suspicious emails.
• Gamification: Security awareness competitions with leaderboards and rewards drive engagement among users.
• Relatable scenarios: Training that uses examples relevant to employees’ specific job functions.

Organizations that implement comprehensive awareness programs see up to a 70% reduction in successful social engineering attempts.

Your Security Gardening Checklist

Ready to tend to your network security garden? Here’s a starter checklist:

1. Conduct an inventory of all systems and applications (map your garden)
2. Implement a vulnerability management program with clear SLAs (regular pest inspection schedule)
3. Deploy defense-in-depth security controls (companion planting strategy)
4. Establish a security awareness program (garden education sessions)
5. Develop and test incident response procedures (plant disease treatment plans)
6. Create a patch management process with defined cycles (seasonal maintenance schedule)
7. Build relationships with key stakeholders (garden community building)
8. Implement monitoring and alerting for anomalous activity (garden surveillance)

The next time you’re reviewing your security program, think like a gardener. Prune back unnecessary access, threat hunt for invasive vulnerabilities, maintain regular care schedules, and most importantly, help your colleagues understand how to tend the garden alongside you.

Finally, what do you call a flower that runs on electricity?  A power plant.

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Further Reading and Resources

• NIST Cybersecurity Framework: https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework
• CIS Critical Security Controls: https://www.cisecurity.org/controls/
• “The Art of Invisibility” by Kevin Mitnick – A practical guide to security consciousness
• KnowBe4 Blog – blog.knowbe4.com