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Contributed article by Gabe Dixon, Product Marketing Manager, WildPackets

Leave 2014 Cybercrimes in The Rear View Mirror; Look Ahead with Network Forensics

2014 was the year of the security breach. Over the past year, data breaches at Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan and P.F. Chang's, among countless others, have thrust network security into the forefront of IT professional's minds. In 2014 alone, 47 percent of American adults had their personal information exposed by hackers, that's 432 million hacks. There may not be any police tape or chase scenes involved, but don't be fooled- cybercrime is just as serious as any other legal violation.

In fact, cybercrime can arguably be more dangerous than many similarly treated offenses specifically because it is often perpetrated without any notice. According to the Center for Strategic & International Studies, cyber crime costs $375-$575 billion and causes a net loss of up to 200,000 jobs in the U.S. alone. While those statistics are striking, perhaps more troubling is that the FBI estimates only 10 percent of all cybercrime incidents are reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). As the attacks get increasingly more sophisticated, subtle, and far-reaching, security systems may not even raise an alert, so in reality the losses may be much greater.

In an age where the rate at which data is being exchanged across a large range of platforms moves at lightning speed, network visibility has never been more important. One of the most effective means of seeing into the network comes in the form of network forensics. Much like video surveillance provides insights to crime scene investigators after a break-in, network forensics helps companies reconstruct exactly what happened when an attack occurred, successful or not. Network forensics can also help pinpoint the source of intermittent performance issues and identify the source of data leaks and HR policy violations. Network forensics answers the critical questions - who, what, where, and when - so that you can identify perpetrators and turn your security detection tools for better performance in the future.

Security teams can use this information to reconstruct the sequence of events that occurred at the time of a network breach or cyber attack to better understand how the attack was carried out, what information was compromised, and how the situation can be prevented in the future. Get the whole picture-your entire network, all your applications, and days of detailed analysis-from an intuitive single console so when you suspect an attack, you have proof.

Looking forward to 2015 - the more organizations focus on forensics, and treat security incidents as a series of offenses, the safer the expanding ecommerce marketplace will be for all involved. Heightened awareness and constant vigilance should be a collective goal. With so many shady figures lurking in cyber space, organizations need to treat cyber crime like the serious issue it is.