How to Audit Your Network
Most businesses have no idea what is actually running on their network, what ports are open, or who has access to what. A network audit fixes that, and it is not as complicated as you think.
How to Audit Your Network
A Practical Guide
Start With What You Actually Have:
You cannot secure what you do not know exists. The first step in any network audit is building a complete inventory of every device, service, and endpoint connected to your network. This includes the obvious stuff: servers, workstations, switches, access points. It also includes the stuff people forget about: the Raspberry Pi someone set up for a demo two years ago, the network printer with default credentials, the personal laptop your contractor plugged into the office ethernet port. Every one of these is a potential entry point. Use a discovery tool like Nmap to sweep your address ranges and identify live hosts, open ports, and running services. The output will surprise you.
For cloud environments, the inventory process looks different but matters just as much. In AWS, use Security Hub and Config to catalog every running instance, S3 bucket, Lambda function, and IAM role. In Azure, use Defender for Cloud. If you are running a hybrid setup, you need visibility into both sides. We have walked into client environments where they had forgotten about entire EC2 instances running production workloads with public IPs and no security groups worth mentioning.
Scan, Probe, and Verify:
Once you have your inventory, scan for vulnerabilities. Nmap's scripting engine (NSE) can detect outdated software versions, weak SSL configurations, and known CVEs on discovered services. Pair it with a vulnerability scanner like OpenVAS or Nessus for deeper analysis. Run Wireshark on key network segments to observe actual traffic patterns; you will often find services communicating in ways nobody planned or approved. Check your firewall rules: are they deny-by-default with explicit allowlists, or have they accumulated exceptions over the years until they are effectively permissive? Review every rule, delete what is not actively needed, and document why each remaining rule exists.
Test network segmentation. Can a compromised workstation on the general network reach your database servers? Can a guest Wi-Fi device see internal file shares? If your flat network means a single compromised endpoint gives an attacker lateral movement across your entire infrastructure, that is a critical finding. Use VLANs, firewall rules, and micro-segmentation to isolate sensitive systems. Your point-of-sale terminals should not be on the same subnet as your development servers.
Access Controls and Privilege Creep:
Review who has access to what, and whether they should still have it. Privilege creep is one of the most common audit findings: someone changed roles six months ago but kept their old permissions. A former contractor's VPN credentials were never revoked. Three people have root access to production because it was easier than setting up proper role-based access. Audit your directory services (Active Directory, Okta, Google Workspace) for inactive accounts, over-permissioned roles, and shared credentials. Every account should follow the principle of least privilege: the minimum access required to do the job, nothing more.
Check SSH key management. Are keys rotated? Are there authorized_keys files on servers with keys from people who left the company? Review API keys and service account tokens. These are often over-scoped and never expire. In AWS, run IAM Access Analyzer to find policies that grant more access than intended. In any environment, look for service accounts with admin privileges; they should be scoped tightly and monitored for unusual activity.
What We Look For When We Audit Client Networks:
When MajorLinkx performs a network audit, we follow a structured methodology. We start with external reconnaissance: what does your network look like from the outside? We check DNS records, exposed services, SSL certificate configurations, and publicly accessible assets. Then we move inside: full asset discovery, vulnerability scanning, traffic analysis, and access control review. We produce a prioritized findings report: critical issues that need immediate action, high-priority items for the next sprint, and medium-to-low items for the quarterly roadmap.
We do not just hand you a PDF and walk away. We work with your team to remediate the critical findings, verify the fixes, and establish monitoring so new issues get caught early. We set up regular re-scans on a cadence that matches your risk profile. For most small businesses, quarterly external scans and semi-annual internal audits are the minimum. If you handle financial data, healthcare records, or PII, you likely need more frequent assessments to meet compliance requirements. The goal is not a perfect score on a single audit; it is a continuous improvement cycle that keeps your attack surface shrinking.