Network analysis is the process of mapping relationships between people, systems, or accounts to reveal who connects different groups, who influences decisions, and where communication or trust concentrates. In cyber security, it helps turn messy organizational data into a usable map of likely access paths and social dependencies.
Defenders use network analysis to find privileged users, shared credentials, weakly segmented teams, and unusual interaction patterns that may signal insider risk or compromised accounts. Attackers also use the same idea: they often study an organization’s internal structure to identify trusted connectors, target influential employees with phishing, or move laterally through relationships and shared workflows. Used carefully, network analysis supports better monitoring, faster incident response, and more targeted security training without relying only on the org chart.