Where You Decrypt Has A Big Effect on Network Data

 

It’s a common truth that it’s not as important as what you say or do, but how you say or do it. This holds true for network data decryption as well. Many businesses today decrypt and inspect network data. And for good reason. It’s been estimated that 70% of malicious traffic is now embedded within encrypted traffic.

Modern IT Architecture - Trends & Challenges

 

Network architects are moving into hybrid environments, scalable technologies, and cloud networks. But when an organization needs to upgrade its networks, add new security or monitoring tools, or move to the cloud, they face a number of security and performance challenges.

NMAP Subnet Scan

I had to perform a subnet scan for a client and unfortunately, they did not have any tools, so I suggested using NMAP (www.nmap.org).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with NMAP, you can perform a subnet scan using any of the 3 following options, subnet/mask, IP address range, IP address and * wildcard. For example, on my network it would look like something like this; 10.44.10.0/24 or 10.44.10.1-254 or 10.44.10.*

As I was performing the scan, I was explaining that you should always ‘know your tool’ by simply performing a packet capture. I went on to say that all you have to do is start, stop and save your capture with a descriptive name. So even if you did not have time to go through it now, or go through it thoroughly, its there for future reference.

How Ease of Use Impacts Network Visibility

 

A fundamental question for network visibility solutions almost always involves the following, “How can you improve the short term and long-term operating costs for your monitoring solution?” Fortunately for all of us, Tim The OldCommGuy™ O’Neil, has shared the answer in one of his whitepapers – The Technical and Financial Impact of Ease of Use on Network Visibility Solutions.

NMAP Baseline

I constantly say that you can baseline anything, anytime. it is a great to practice with your tools, keep your skills sharp and learn something new.

In this video I go over a simple NMAP command and what it does under the hood. Along the way I share some Wireshark tips and tricks as well as protocol review.

Nothing more to say, lets get at it.