Tools for Network Traffic Analysis: Keeping an Eye Out for Anomalies

A technique for keeping an eye on network activity and availability to spot irregularities, such as operational and security problems, is network traffic analysis, or NTA.

Typical NTA use cases consist of:

Assembling a history and current record of activity on your network

Identifying malicious behavior, such as ransomware

Identifying the usage of weak ciphers and protocols

Fixing a sluggish network

Enhancing interior visibility and removing blind areas

You may decrease your attack surface, boost security, optimize network performance, and manage your resources more effectively by putting in place a system that can continually monitor network traffic.

But simply being able to keep an eye on network traffic is insufficient. It's crucial to take into account the data sources for your network monitoring tool. Flow data, which is obtained from devices such as routers, and packet data, which is obtained via SPAN, mirror ports, and network TAPs, are two of the most popular data sources.

Because of the current mentality that "it's not if, it's when" when it comes to cyberattacks, security experts may find it difficult to cover as much of an organization's surroundings as feasible. The network is one of the most crucial parts of their attack surface as it allows them to detect and stop attacks in other areas by viewing their network data.

Among NTA's advantages are:

Enhanced insight into the devices (such as Internet of Things gadgets and medical visits) joining your network

Fulfill the standards for compliance

Diagnose and resolve operational and security problems

Quickly respond to inquiries with comprehensive information and extra network context

Setting up NTA requires careful consideration of the sources of the data you're collecting. Flow data is useful for mapping a network packet's journey from origin to destination and for determining traffic volumes. This degree of data can be useful in identifying illegal WAN activity and optimizing network performance, but it may not provide enough context or rich detail to delve further into cybersecurity concerns.

Network administrators may monitor for suspected malware or other security problems, measure use on WAN lines, and gain insight into how users are adopting and using programs by using packet data derived from network packets. Deep packet inspection (DPI) solutions provide network and security administrators complete access over the network by converting raw metadata into a readable format and allowing them to examine even the smallest detail.

Use cases for network traffic analysis and monitoring include the following:

Finding evidence of ransomware behavior

Keeping an eye on internet activity and data exfiltration

Keep an eye on file server or MSSQL database access.

Observe a user's online behavior, nevertheless reports in User Forensics

List all of the hardware, software, and servers that are connected to the network.

Identify and highlight the primary source of network bandwidth surges; provide real-time dashboards that highlight user and network activities

Create reports on network activities for management and auditors at any given moment.