Sniffer Global, a new software-based portable protocol analysis tool
The portable protocol analyzer remains a widely used front-line tool that helps to improve real-time troubleshooting with localized provisional visibility for today’s modern IP network. However, the portable protocol analysis tools currently in use have evolved without much attention to the requirements for security, governance and control of how these tools are utilized.
Although organizations have heavily invested in securing access to the network and its data to safeguard valuable information from hijack, theft or unauthorized access, the portable network analyzer has emerged as the overlooked security “black-hole” that essentially bypasses all established security mechanisms or policies without detection. Assuming a person can physically connect to the network, portable protocol analyzers have typically had full, uncontrolled access to network traffic traversing the wire – until now.
NetScout Systems released Sniffer Global, a software-based portable network analyzer solution that addresses this widely overlooked security risk by integrating the portable protocol analyzer into a policy-based, secure operating environment that is governed and controlled from a central authentication server.
Combining desktop analysis software with a centralized control server and pre-defined policies, Sniffer Global controls what network data a portable analyzer user has access to, and how deeply they can access and analyze network traffic or data. Sniffer Global offers seamless user reporting that provides a comprehensive audit trail of all users’ activities – detailing who has accessed the network, what they have accessed and/or monitored, and what functions or analysis was performed on the data accessed – representing a truly unprecedented level of visibility into how the portable protocol analysis tool has been used.
Sniffer Global also eases the management of enterprise-wide deployments by simplifying the process for updating the IT workforce’s laptops by enabling users to determine if software updates are available from anywhere they may be connected. With a single-click, users can quickly update their local software versions and obtain the most current levels of decode and expert capabilities from the central server. The server tracks which user has updated their software and which software version is running on each authorized user’s laptop – easing and streamlining the management of enterprise-wide deployments and helping to lower the total cost of ownership of portable protocol analysis tools.
Sniffer Global is available in either an enterprise-wide license with unlimited users or as a 10-user licensed deployment.