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Court Approved and Can't Be Hacked: The Network TAP

January 3, 2017

How trusted does your data have to be? In today's world of data breaches and hacks, it is best to be capturing 100% of your data. In the court of law, dropped packets equal unsubmittable evidence.

Learn what makes network TAPs approved for CALEA and Lawful Intercept cases.

The Network TAP (Network Test Access Point) transmits the send and receive data streams simultaneously on separate dedicated channels, ensuring all data arrives at the monitoring device in real time - 100% of the data.

And because of this, Network TAPs are approved for use in CALEA (The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc.) and Lawful Intercept cases.

The SPAN or monitor port, unlike the TAP, will drop packets when ports when oversubscribed and can distort real time communication such as VoIP and video chats, making lawful intercept unacceptable.

Speaking of hacks, did you know a Network TAP cannot be hacked? If you are relying on the SPAN port, tell yourself, if it has an IP address, it can be hacked. The Network TAP has No IP address, No MAC address and is invisible to the network.

Today's network, security and management pros require 100% network uptime while maintaining full network visibility and access. You can't afford to not see every bit, byte and packet.®

Which do you use to feed your tools? Click below and take a look at the new TAP vs SPAN infographic and compare the difference. 

TAP vs SPAN

 

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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.

NETWORK MANAGEMENT | THE 101 SERIES