Network mapping is the process of documenting how systems, devices, and services communicate. A good map shows not only what assets exist, but also the links between them, the direction of traffic, and any dependencies such as remote access paths or shared services. In industrial and enterprise environments, this visibility is essential because security problems often hide in connections rather than on individual hosts.
For defenders, network mapping supports segmentation, access control, incident response, and change management. It helps teams spot unexpected pathways, unmanaged devices, and fragile dependencies that could cause outages if altered. Attackers also use mapping during reconnaissance to identify high-value systems, weak trust relationships, and routes for lateral movement. In practice, defenders build maps from passive traffic monitoring, switch and router data, flow logs, and asset discovery tools, then compare them over time to detect drift and suspicious changes.