What is an example of an air-gapped network?
A common example of an air-gapped network is the classified network used by military and intelligence agencies to handle secret information, which runs entirely separate from the public internet with no physical or wireless connection between them.
Another everyday example is the control network for a power plant or factory floor, kept isolated so that a breach of the corporate office network cannot reach the systems running physical equipment.
Other typical cases include nuclear facility control systems, voting machine tabulation setups, and the "cold storage" wallets used to hold cryptocurrency offline. In each case, any data that must cross the gap moves by hand on removable media like a USB stick or a burned disc, since there is no network path. These environments usually pair the air gap with strict rules on what devices may enter the room, because that manual transfer is the main way threats can still slip in.
