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Slash The Cost Of A Security Breach Within Your Network

April 1, 2015

The November 24, 2014 hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment was one of the more prominent security breaches since Target’s attack, which cost the retail chain $162 million from 2013-2014. That figure is expected to continue to rise as lawsuits are settled on the corporate level.   But, these prominent lapses in network security are certainly not the outliers.

According to USA Today, 43% of companies suffered a data breach in 2013. Despite new security infrastructure and technological advancements, most organizations continue to depend on less-than-sufficient technology.

Meaning what? The SPAN port.

SPAN Ports Are A Risk To Your Network Security

Data capture is essential to keeping your network secure and limiting the cost of a breach. SPAN ports have long been incapable of ensuring complete network visibility. They hinder your ability to catch security breaches and minimize the damage done to your company. The risk of oversubscription is too great, and dropped packets are a very real concern. You simply cannot trust a SPAN port to keep you apprised of issues on your network.

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How To Limit The Cost Of A Security Breach

In order to build the analytical picture you need for comprehensively assessing vulnerability, managing compliance, and analyzing performance, you must design a fortified network-monitoring architecture.

The network TAP is fundamental to capturing 100% of your network data and gaining complete visibility. A TAP not only reduces the cost of a security breach, but also mitigates the risk of one occurring.

In addition network TAPs do not have IP or Mac addresses, and thus, cannot be hacked. It provides greater network security because it detects threats from both inside and outside of your network. SPAN ports, on the other hand, are easily manipulated. If your switch is hacked, your attackers are capable of reprogramming your SPAN port to hide the fact that you’re network's been breached.

Many organizations rely on SPAN ports because of their minimal cost – zero. However, the indirect cost of a security breach is substantial.

There are several key facts you need to know about data breaches and the costs they incur. but I'll leave you with just one eye-opening fact:

The average cost of network downtime is $336,000 per hour. 

Learn more about network TAPs and how to protect your network and data. Download our free TAP vs. SPAN whitepaper today.

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Heartbeats Packets Inside the Bypass TAP

If the inline security tool goes off-line, the TAP will bypass the tool and automatically keep the link flowing. The Bypass TAP does this by sending heartbeat packets to the inline security tool. As long as the inline security tool is on-line, the heartbeat packets will be returned to the TAP, and the link traffic will continue to flow through the inline security tool.

If the heartbeat packets are not returned to the TAP (indicating that the inline security tool has gone off-line), the TAP will automatically 'bypass' the inline security tool and keep the link traffic flowing. The TAP also removes the heartbeat packets before sending the network traffic back onto the critical link.

While the TAP is in bypass mode, it continues to send heartbeat packets out to the inline security tool so that once the tool is back on-line, it will begin returning the heartbeat packets back to the TAP indicating that the tool is ready to go back to work. The TAP will then direct the network traffic back through the inline security tool along with the heartbeat packets placing the tool back inline.

Some of you may have noticed a flaw in the logic behind this solution!  You say, “What if the TAP should fail because it is also in-line? Then the link will also fail!” The TAP would now be considered a point of failure. That is a good catch – but in our blog on Bypass vs. Failsafe, I explained that if a TAP were to fail or lose power, it must provide failsafe protection to the link it is attached to. So our network TAP will go into Failsafe mode keeping the link flowing.

Glossary

  1. Single point of failure: a risk to an IT network if one part of the system brings down a larger part of the entire system.

  2. Heartbeat packet: a soft detection technology that monitors the health of inline appliances. Read the heartbeat packet blog here.

  3. Critical link: the connection between two or more network devices or appliances that if the connection fails then the network is disrupted.

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