Your flat network is a sieve — segmentation is the lock that turns a breach into a non-event

802.1Q VLAN turned 27 in 2025, and 94% of ransomware attacks still exploit lateral movement through unsegmented networks. VLAN, VXLAN, micro-segmentation, and 802.1X are not exotic checklist items — they are the four locks that determine whether a single compromised endpoint becomes a full organizational disaster.