- Layer 3 devices, such as routers, send information by
broadcasting it to every destination on the network, and the
destination handles the problem of parsing out the specific
information that's needed from the general broadcast. - In a
switched environment, switches send traffic only to its intended
host (determined by the destination information in each
individual packet). Operating in a switched environment doesn't
totally alleviate the risk of sniffing, but it does mitigate
that risk to a large degree. Most networks today also utilize
virtual LAN (VLAN) configurations to segment network traffic and
further reduce the risk of sniffing. A VLAN is a switched
network that's logically segmented. VLANs are created to provide
the segmentation services traditionally provided by routers in
LAN configurations. VLANs address scalability, security, and
network management. Routers in VLAN topologies provide broadcast
filtering, security, address summarization, and traffic-flow
management. Just as switches isolate col