LoveMyTool - Network Monitoring, CALEA, Lawful Intercept, Application Performance, Web User Experience, Web Analytics, Content & Database Security, IDS, Malware, Crimeware, SOX, HIPAA and PCI Compliance Auditing, Forensics, DPI, VoIP, IPTV ...

Vint Cerf @ Sharkfest 2008

Speaker Profile - Dr. Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies and applications on the Internet and other platforms for the company.

Widely known as a "Father of the Internet," Vint is the co-designer with Robert Kahn of TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet. In 1997, President Clinton recognized their work with the U.S. National Medal of Technology. In 2005, Vint and Bob received the highest civilian honor bestowed in the U.S., the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It recognizes the fact that their work on the software code used to transmit data across the Internet has put them "at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment."

For optimal viewing experience, after clicking on the large right arrow above to start the video, click on the up arrow on the bottom right hand corner to view the video in full screen mode, then click on the upper left corners of either half of the screen to adjust the size.

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Go Deep or Get No Sleep (by Tim O’Neill)

Editor Profile - Tim O’Neill is an independent technology consultant. He has over 30 years experience working in the WAN, Analog, ISDN, ATM and LAN test market. Tim has worked with companies like Navtel, Network General, Ganymede and ClearSight Networks and is now helping companies get lab recognition and technology verification. Tim is also the Chief Contributing Editor for LoveMyTool.com, a website designed to help network managers gain access to valuable information and real solution stories from other customers. Tim is a patent holding, published and degreed engineer, who has seen this technology grow from Teletype (current loop) data analysis to today’s 10 Gigabit LAN’s focused on business applications with heavy compliance demands. Tim can be reached at oldcommguy (at) bellsouth (dot) net.

One-Minute Videos courtsey of ConvergeDigest.com

Are you interested in Deep Packet Capture and Inspection, as every Network Manger should?

Then I have a site for you to visit to get and share great information, dPacket.org!

I recently had the pleasure and opportunity to meet with Kyle Rosenthal who is the co-Founder of a unique and very important information site, dPacket.org. This site was created to focus on the technologies and products related to Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) as well as Deep Packet Capture (DPC), both of which are very important for successful network management in today’s security and compliance intensive markets.

dPacket.org brings together many important resources to help in the thorough understanding of these demanding technologies as well as a blog/community for deeper exchange of information, ideas, success stories and much more.

The following review is a quick tutorial of DPI/DPC as well as an introduction into the valuable resources that dPacket.org provides which will help you increase your knowledge in this leading edge technology that is and will be a major part of the network future, your network future! Great reading….

Network Forensics & Human Resource Compliance (by David Strom)

Author Profile - David Strom is the former editor in chief of Tom’s Hardware and Network Computing, the author of two computer books and thousands of magazine articles on Internet security, computer networking and other technical topics. He writes frequently for the New York Times, Computerworld, InformationWeek, eWeek, Information Security and other IT-related publications. He is a frequent speaker at many industry events, and writes blogs and records podcasts on numerous technical subjects. He lives in St. Louis, Mo., and can be reached at david (at) strom (dot) com.

Vendor Profile - Since 1990, WildPackets has been developing network and application analysis solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to analyze, troubleshoot, optimize, and secure their wired and wireless networks. WildPackets products are sold in over 60 countries through a broad network of channel and strategic partners. WildPackets has amassed more than 6,000 customers and its products are sold in over 60 countries in all industrial sectors. Customers include Safeway, Boeing, Siemens, AT&T, Motorola and over 80% of the Fortune 1000. Strategic partners include Aruba, Atheros, Cisco, Avaya, Intel and Telchemy.

CONTENT

• It can happen to you!
• Sexual harassment and discrimination
• Why forensics matters to HR managers
• The perfect storm for forensics
• Three types of investigations
• Enter general-purpose forensic tools
• WildPackets OmniAnalysis Platform
• Privacy Regulations: A Summary

OVERVIEW

Something wrong is happening on your network. Call it human nature or simply a few bad apples, but unless your organization is miraculously different from all others, someone is leaking information, someone else is dabbling in porn, and someone else is probably doing a handsome business on eBay—on one of your servers.

Your organization has policies about this—and your industry may have regulations that pertain, as well. You need to ensure these policies are complied with—or you need to collect evidence to take action when they’re not.

When you suspect something is wrong, do you have the means to conduct an investigation? How do you collect evidence—digital evidence—when there are so many channels of communication (email, Web mail, IM, etc.), and so many places to look on your network?

Time for network forensics.

Cal-Ore Telecommunications on Solera Networks

“With the Solera Networks solution, I can go back to look at the traffic to see exactly what happened ... Being able to do more with the solution than just meeting strict CALEA compliance is one of the most valuable reasons we went with Solera Networks.”

-- Charles Boening, Network Manager, Cal-Ore Communications Inc.

Click below to listen to a recorded interview with Charles Boening

Customer Profile - Headquartered in Dorris, California, Cal-Ore is a diversified communications company offering services in the Butte Valley and Tulelake areas of northern California, as well as some areas of southern Klamath County, Oregon. Its subsidiaries include Cal-Ore Telephone, Cal-Ore Cellular, Cal-Ore Long Distance, and Cal-Ore Communications.

Vendor Profile - Solera Networks develops and markets high performance storage appliances and storage and application software and hardware solutions for the emerging Network Management and Network Security Markets. Solera's flagship product, the DS Series, is a suite of network packet recorder appliances that far surpass the gigabit barrier. Acting as a large network buffer, the DS Series integrates seamlessly with existing network applications, providing network managers a complete and accurate picture of network activity and performance.

Northern California telephone and Internet service provider deploys Solera Networks deep packet capture and stream-to-storage appliance, becomes CALEA compliant, improves network security and performance and saves about $100,000.

Netwitness @ CSI Conference 2007

Vendor Profile - NetWitness® Corporation provides patented next generation network monitoring software products that enable organizations to achieve Total Network Knowledge™. Users of NetWitness NextGen™ can concurrently solve a wide variety of network and security problems, including, insider threat management, data leakage protection, malware activity detection, network performance management, compliance verification and e-discovery. Originally, developed for the US Intelligence Community, NetWitness has evolved to provide enterprises with breakthrough methods of network content analysis and risk determination. Customers include Defense, National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies and Fortune 1000 organizations.

Eddie Schwartz is the Chief Security Officer of NetWitness.

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Solera Networks @ Interop New York 2007

Vendor Profile - Solera Networks develops and markets high performance storage appliances and storage and application software and hardware solutions for the emerging Network Management and Network Security Markets. Solera's flagship product, the DS Series, is a suite of network packet recorder appliances that far surpass the gigabit barrier. Acting as a large network buffer, the DS Series integrates seamlessly with existing network applications, providing network managers a complete and accurate picture of network activity and performance.

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CALEA Compliance – Bitter but Good Medicine (by Tim O’Neill)

• What is CALEA?
• Does CALEA affect me?
• What should I know about CALEA?
• Are there any lessons that I can learn from CALEA Compliance that would help me better manage my enterprise network?

Editor Profile - Tim O’Neill is an independent technology consultant. He has over 30 years experience working in the WAN, Analog, ISDN, ATM and LAN test market. Tim has worked with companies like Navtel, Network General, Ganymede and ClearSight Networks and is now helping companies get lab recognition and technology verification. Tim is also the Chief Contributing Editor for LoveMyTool.com, a website designed to help network managers gain access to valuable information and real solution stories from other customers. Tim is a patent holding, published and degreed engineer, who has seen this technology grow from Teletype (current loop) data analysis to today’s 10 Gigabit LAN’s focused on business applications with heavy compliance demands. Tim can be reached at oldcommguy (at) bellsouth (dot) net.

CALEA is an acronym for Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, originally enacted in 1984 by the U.S. Congress.

This law as previously drafted was focused only on the monitoring and capturing requirements for telecommunication carriers and service providers when mandated through court orders or other lawful authorizations.

As of May 2006, the law has been broadly extended to include all VoIP carriers forcing many smaller non-traditional providers to comply with the same access and capture parameters.

There is even serious talk about removing the exemption for both public and private Universities and requiring them to come into compliance in the near future.

Interestingly, CALEA is also the name of a plant that is alleged to be capable of “clarifying the senses”, which the Chontal medicine men call thle-pela-kano, meaning “Leaf of God”. According to Wikipedia, Calea Zacatechichi, also known as Dream Herb, Cheech, and Bitter Grass, is still used by the indigenous Chontal of the Mexican state of Oaxaca for oneiromancy, which is a form of divination based on dreams. Whenever they desire to investigate the cause of an illness or the location of a lost or distant relative, dry leaves of the plant are smoked, drunk in infusions, and put under the pillow before going to sleep, expecting the answer to the difficult question to materialize in a dream.

I believe CALEA Compliance is the “Bitter Grass” of our time. While painful to implement, once successfully deployed, CALEA compliance tools can actually provide us with previously unavailable visibility to our own network, allowing us to “clarify our senses”.

Aardman Animations on Network Instruments

“No other vendor could touch Network Instruments Observer software for its combination of breadth of functionality and affordability.”

-- Howard Arnault-Ham, Head of IT, Aardman Animations

Customer Profile - Aardman Animation has a thriving CGI department and has produced Oscar®-winning films, T.V. commercials, and even music videos, such as Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. The company, based in Bristol (UK) and co-founded and run by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, is a world leader in animation. It produces feature films, television series and television commercials for both the domestic and international market. Their multi-award winning productions are novel, entertaining, brilliantly characterized and full of charm that reflects the unique talent, energy and personal commitment of the very special people who make up the Aardman team. The studio’s work is often imitated, yet the company continues to lead the field producing its rare brand of visually stunning and amusing independent and commercial productions.

Vendor Profile - Network Instruments provides in-depth network intelligence and continuous network availability through innovative analysis solutions. Enterprise network professionals depend on Network Instruments’ Observer product line for unparalleled network visibility to efficiently solve network problems and manage deployments. By combining a powerful management console with high-performance analysis appliances, Observer simplifies problem resolution and optimizes network and application performance. The company continues to lead the industry in ROI with its advanced Distributed Network Analysis (NI-DNA™) architecture, which successfully integrates comprehensive analysis functionality across heterogeneous networks through a single monitoring interface. Network Instruments is headquartered in Minneapolis with sales offices worldwide and distributors in over 50 countries.

Wallace and Gromit Do Bohemian Rhapsody

Network Forensics - CSO's Crime Scene Kit for CALEA, Compliance and Security (by J. Scott Haugdahl)

Author Profile - J. Scott Haugdahl is the founder and CTO of his new venture, Bitcricket. He was former Chief Technology Officer at WildPackets and holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota, Institute of Technology. He has extensive experience in the network analysis industry in the areas of speaking, writing, competitive analysis, on-site training and network troubleshooting, and expert systems design and implementation. Industry vertical expertise include 802.11 wireless, VoIP, performance analysis and Apdex (Application Performance Index), and good old fashioned protocol analyzer detective work (including forensics). His past entrepreneur experience includes founding Net3 Group, where he wrote the industry’s first analyzer agnostic expert system. He continues writing his popular blog and can be reached by email at scott (at) bitcricket (dot) com.

Quick, what’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘forensics’? CSI? Despite being an IT guy, I still have morbid thoughts along the lines of a pathologist slicing into a cadaver. Or collecting stuff that might contain the perps’ DNA at a crime scene (fingerprints are so yesteryear.)

Webster’s defines forensics as “The use of science and technology to investigate and establish facts in criminal or civil courts of law.”

I think this fits well with corporate needs for network forensics using analysis tools. Many vendors have tools with catchy taglines on variants of “Retrospective Analysis”, “Business Forensics”, “Turn Back the Clock,” and so on. Unlike real-time, the basic premise behind network forensics is to mine data (usually via packets) and perform post analysis to reconstruct content or gather intelligence as to why certain things happened. In some ways, forensics is like detailed hindsight.

Skyriver Communications on Solera Networks

“It was about a quarter of the cost of anything else I had seen on the market.”

Brad Slavin, Vice President of Engineering and Network Operations, Skyriver Communications, Inc.

Customer Profile - Headquartered in San Diego CA, Skyriver Communications is an innovative connectivity services provider, offering a complete set of converged communication solutions to enterprise, small-medium businesses, and hospitality markets. Through its trusted and reliable wireless broadband, hotspot, business continuity, IT services, and ISP offerings, Skyriver is uniquely qualified to meet the full spectrum of mission critical connectivity, implementation and support needs of today’s fast paced communications environment.

Vendor Profile - Solera Networks develops and markets high performance storage appliances and storage and application software and hardware solutions for the emerging Network Management and Network Security Markets. Solera's flagship product, the DS Series, is a suite of network packet recorder appliances that far surpass the gigabit barrier. Acting as a large network buffer, the DS Series integrates seamlessly with existing network applications, providing network managers a complete and accurate picture of network activity and performance.

Customer Requirement:

Skyriver needed a cost-effective solution to quickly bring them into CALEA compliance. Solera Networks provided its Solera CALEA Appliance to enable Skyriver to provide lawful intercepts or "wire taps" when requested by Law Enforcement Agencies.

Solera Solution:

Solera Networks DS 500

Benefits:

• Met requirements to be CALEA compliant
• Can perform a lawful tap request at any time
• Device also helps optimize their network performance

“It's my expectation that when using the device to perform network analysis, if there is an event, its going to really reduce our time to respond. It seems that we started out looking for a hunting knife but ended up getting a Swiss Army Knife.”

Click below to listen to a live interview with Brad Slavin, Vice President of Engineering and Network Operations of Skyriver Communications, Inc.