Cyber Resilience | May 5, 2023
By Keith Bromley : Sr. Manager, Product Marketing
Network traffic analysis (NTA) is a method of monitoring network availability and activity to identify anomalies.
This includes security and operational issues. Learn more about it and why you should care now!
Everyday use cases for NTA include: Collecting a real-time and historical record of what’s happening on your network and detecting malware such as ransomware activity.
Security Network Traffic Analysis
Network security traffic analysis is a critical measure that every organization should take to protect itself from cyber threats. The importance of this practice lies in the fact that it provides visibility into your network, helping you identify potential threats and respond quickly. With cyber-attacks becoming more prevalent and sophisticated, it is crucial to have a robust security infrastructure that includes network security traffic analysis.
Investing in network security traffic analysis can protect your business reputation, reduce the likelihood of negative publicity, and reduce the cost associated with a cyber attack. Finally, network security traffic analysis can increase operational efficiency by optimizing network performance, reducing downtime, and boosting productivity.
Operational Network Traffic Analysis
Operational network traffic analysis is another critical aspect of network security that every organization should consider. It involves monitoring and analyzing the traffic on your network to gain insights into network performance, identify network issues, and optimize network performance.
Operational network traffic analysis can help you identify the root cause of network problems, such as network congestion, bandwidth bottlenecks, and network errors. You can optimize network performance, reduce network downtime, and improve user experience by analyzing network traffic.
Moreover, operational network traffic analysis can provide valuable insights into network usage, helping you identify the applications and devices that consume the most network resources. This information can be used to implement network policies that prioritize critical applications and limit the use of non-essential ones, ensuring optimal network performance and efficiency.
Network Traffic Analysis Tools
Explaining different network traffic analysis tools can be as exciting as watching paint dry, but it’s worth investigating. It’s not all doom and gloom in the world of network analysis. Let’s take a look at some of the tools at our disposal. We have packet sniffers that let us sniff out packets and capture them for further analysis. Then we have flow-based tools that provide a high-level view of network traffic, perfect for when you’re feeling fancy and want to see the big picture. And if that’s not enough, we also have behavioral analysis tools that are perfect for detecting those sneaky attackers that hide in the shadows.
We also have anomaly detection tools that can help us identify unusual patterns in network traffic. Visualization tools turn boring data into stunning visuals, making it easier to spot trends and patterns.
Related Content: LiveAction + Keysight: Respond Faster with Enhanced Flow and Packet Analysis
Get Network Visibility provides a plethora of free resources and tools to help you understand your network traffic analysis and how it can help to protect your organization’s assets from coming under attack. Check out the site and get in touch if you have questions about how network visibility analysis should be a top priority for your cybersecurity team.
Download our Free White Paper on Network Monitoring Best Practices!
Now it’s time to get back to work for another year!
More Information
If you want more information on this topic, check out the following resources:
- Keysight’s 2023 Security Report (report)
- How to Make a Hybrid Visibility Architecture Successful (white paper)
