Network Traffic Analysis Mistakes You Must Avoid

Monitoring your network traffic is crucial for keeping your business running. You prevent outages, combat cybersecurity threats and reduce the likelihood of data breaches with network traffic analysis. You probably have experienced disruptive network failures as a result of not paying attention to your network. Most businesses still commit mistakes in this domain and end up paying for it. This post will uncover network traffic analysis mistakes you must avoid to keep your network secure and going. Keep walking with us to learn more about these mistakes!

Network traffic analysis mistakes:

Network traffic analysis mistakes are easier to make than you think. The consequences of these mistakes are significant. You can end up losing your sensitive data and falling victim to cyber-attacks. When it comes to maintaining a secure and efficient network, traffic analysis is crucial. However, mistakes in this domain can lead to vulnerabilities and poor network performance. Businesses often ignore encrypted traffic and rely solely on signature-based detection, which is never enough. You better watch out for these common mistakes to keep your network running. The following list has compiled a few network traffic analysis mistakes you must avoid at any cost. Let us begin!

Not filtering the traffic:

One of the common mistakes in network traffic analysis is not filtering the incoming traffic. It can result in noisy traffic and scattered data on your network. You will waste your time and resources to manage the data and filter out the relevant traffic. On the contrary, filtering your traffic will help you focus on crucial and relevant information. You will only allow specific protocols, ports, and hosts to your network.

When it comes to filtering your traffic, you can use multiple tools and techniques. Capture filters, display filters, packet slicing, and protocol decoders are a few tools you can use to filter your network traffic.

Ignoring encrypted traffic:

Neglecting encrypted traffic is another common mistake people make when analyzing network traffic. Most of the organizations these days use encryption to protect data in transit. With this growing concept of encryption, companies usually don’t bother to analyze encrypted incoming traffic. However, sophisticated malicious actors can use encrypted channels to evade detection and penetrate your network. It is necessary to analyze encrypted traffic as well to keep your network secure.

There are several decryption tools like SSL and TLS available. You can use these tools for advanced network traffic monitoring. Do you want to secure your network from external and internal threats? You can hire cybersecurity companies Dubai and let them implement effective security strategies for your network!

Not establishing a network baseline:

It is always necessary to establish a network baseline and understand the regular traffic patterns and data flows. Without this baseline, you will never detect anomalies, resulting in data breaches and cyber-attacks. Normal network behavior can easily be assessed with a network baseline. However, most companies commit the mistake of not going with this baseline, leading to chaotic outcomes.

How can you detect abnormal activities if you don’t know what normal looks like? You must be good enough to differentiate between legitimate traffic spikes and those caused by malicious actors.

Ignoring East-West traffic:

Most organizations often focus their network traffic analysis on north-south traffic. This kind of traffic flows only between the network and the outside world. Although, this approach is necessary for organizations; however, it neglects the east-west traffic and its significance. The east-west traffic moves laterally between your devices within the network. If you don’t have an eye for this, you will face consequences at a certain point in time.

Cyber-attackers often use the east-west traffic to escalate privileges and penetrate your sensitive network areas. Once they gain the initial access, they use this approach to reach sensitive parts and steal your data. It would be best to pay attention to east-west traffic to avoid attacks.

Focusing only on high-volume alerts:

Network traffic analysts are easily overwhelmed by heavy traffic. They mostly analyze traffic with high volumes and ignore regular traffic inflow. Smaller and insignificant alerts can carry malicious actors, which can hurt your network and put your sensitive data at stake. The best approach is to analyze traffic of all kinds and sizes for better security.

Low-volume traffic could be the beginning of an attacker-testing defense. You should never ignore these signals. Do you want to enhance your network security and keep attackers at bay? You should contact cybersecurity companies Dubai and let them help you!

Analyze your network traffic and avoid mistakes!

Network traffic analysis is crucial to keep your network secure and functional. You should avoid mistakes like not establishing a baseline, ignoring east-west traffic, and focusing only on high-volume alerts. You can seek help from professional cybersecurity companies and let them secure your network with advanced tools and strategies!