Chapter 1 - Introducing Network Analysis

Abstract

Network analysis is the key to maintaining an optimized network and detecting security issues. Proactive management can help find issues before they turn into serious problems and cause network downtime or compromise confidential data. In addition to identifying attacks and suspicious activity, one can use the network analyzer data to identify security vulnerabilities and weaknesses and enforce your company's security policy. This chapter covers the basics of networking, Ethernet, the OSI model, and hardware that is used in a network architecture. It also covers a variety of methods used to protect the data from eavesdropping by sniffers. One should always remain up to date on the latest security technologies, encryption algorithms, and authentication processes. Intruders are constantly finding ways to defeat current security practices, thus more powerful methods are developed. A good example is the cracking of the Data Encryption Standard (DES) encryption scheme and its subsequent replacement with Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES).