If I had a dollar for each time I was told that they would get me a firewall exception to get to the air gapped system...
It does make it much easier to do stuff but kinda defeats the purpose.
It does make it much easier to do stuff but kinda defeats the purpose.
And a WiFi connection even though it goes 'through the air' is not an airgap.
The same for BT and any other kind of connectivity.
An airgap is only an airgap if you need physical access to a device to be able to import or export bits using a physical connection, and the location of the device is secured by physical barriers. Preferably a building that is secure against non-military wannabe intruders.
Any system accessible with a firewall exception is not "air-gapped" by definition.
A level below that is diode networks, which are not air-gapped but provide much stronger system isolation than anything that is accessible with a "firewall exception".
Far below either of these is vanilla network isolation, which is what you seem to be talking about.
I completely agree. Maybe I should have put "air-gapped" in quotes.
The most interesting subset of these systems are high-assurance bi-directional data paths between independent peers that are quasi-realtime. Both parties are simultaneously worried about infiltration and exfiltration. While obviously a misnomer, many people still call them diodes...
The entire domain is fascinating and less developed than you would think.
It is a genuinely fun project for someone with sufficiently sophisticated skill but I suspect there is relatively little money in it, which colors the opportunity and outcomes.
The absence of clear commercial opportunity gives the domain a weird dynamic.