IT Baseline Protection Manual - The Information Warfare Site

Threats Catalogue Deliberate Acts Remarks
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T 4.31 Failure or malfunction of a network
component
A failure or malfunction of active network components impairs the availability
of the entire network or sections of it. Three different situations can be
distinguished:
- With a failure or malfunction of the entire network component, the network
is rendered inaccessible for all the stations connected to it. With such a
failure or malfunction of just a single port, only the station connected via
this port is no longer able to access the network.
Example: A failure of the central switch 1 as shown in the diagram below
results in a complete breakdown of communications between the connected
stations.
Workingstation1 Workingstation 2 Server 1 Server 2 Workingstation 3 Workingstation 4
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IT-Baseline Protection Manual: Oktober 2000
Switch 1
- Another situation involves active network components which are not
connected directly to the network segments of mutually communicating
workstation and server systems, but which are located in the signal path
between these systems. If no redundant signal paths are present between
the workstation and server systems in question, a failure or malfunction of
one or more such components might fully or partially disrupt
communications between these systems.
Example: If switch 1 fails as shown in the diagram below, then
workstations 3 and 4 can no longer communicate with the two servers or
the remaining workstations.