In that diagram, I would hope the company network shown consists of five separate networks!

  1. The Web Server should be in a DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) because clients on the internet can initiate communications with the website, making it more likely to become compromised. Placing it in a separate network allows the administrators to put networking protections between the web server and other devices.
  2. Workstations should be on their own network, and in a perfect world, each workstation should have a Host-Based Firewall rule preventing it from talking to other workstations. If a Workstation is on the same network as a Server, networking attacks like spoofing or man in the middle become much more of an issue.
  3. The Switch and Router should be on an "Administration Network." This prevents workstations from snooping in on any communication between these devices. I have often performed a Penetration Test and saw OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) advertisements. Since the router did not have a trusted network, anyone on the internal network could have sent a malicious advertisement and performed a man in the middle attack against any network.
  4. IP Phones should be on their own network. Security-wise this is to prevent computers from being able to eavesdrop on communication. In addition to security, phones are unique in the sense that latency/lag is significant. Placing them on their own network can allow network administrators to prioritize their traffic to prevent high latency more easily.
  5. Printers should be on their own network. This may sound weird, but it is next to impossible to secure a printer. Due to how Windows works, if a printer tells a computer authentication is required during a print job, that computer will attempt an NTLMv2 authentication, which can lead to passwords being stolen. Additionally, these devices are great for persistence and, in general, have tons of sensitive information sent to them.