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General

Introducing Plixer’s Internet Threat Center (ITC)

Posted on - by Adam Powers

Detect Internet Threats: botnet, malware, and morePlixer is pleased to announce a new weapon in the war against Internet threats: the all new Internet Threat Center (ITC). Based on hundreds of observation points deployed across the Internet, the ITC provides a near-realtime view of malicious actors across the globe. Plixer customers gain access to the ITC via regular updates to Internet host reputation data downloaded from the ITC to their Scrutinizer installations. NetFlow data collected from routers and switches within their network is compared to ITC data to alert when ITC suspects are active within the customer’s network environment.

This blog provides an overview of the Internet Threat Center and a brief tour of its features…

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Network Operations

Cisco ASA v8.4(5) Advanced Reporting Webcast

Posted on - by Jake

The latest software update to the Cisco ASA v8.4(5) dramatically changed the way vendors report on NetFlow and NetFlow Security Event Logging (NSEL).   This webcast will explain the changes in the export that bring additional value to your business.  Topics covered include:

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Network Operations

NetFlow Generators: Enabling NetFlow Without NetFlow Support (Part #1)

Posted on - by Adam Powers

Introducing NetFlow and IPFIX

This article covers the benefits and capabilities provided by a new class of network monitoring technology called a NetFlow generator. But before we get too far into NetFlow generation details, let’s do a quick review of NetFlow itself for those that are new to the topic.

NetFlow and IPFIX are network monitoring technologies providing deep visibility into network traffic. NetFlow was originally developed by Cisco and later standardized into IPFIX by RFC 5101. Traditionally, NetFlow was included as a feature of routers, switches, firewalls, and other network devices. It’s even found in virtualization platforms such as VMWare’s vSphere 5.0 and above. Any device that can generate NetFlow packets is called an exporter. As packets travel through the exporter the device records information about the flow of traffic. Data elements such as packet count, source and destination IP, MAC address, and much more are stored in a memory resident data structure within the exporter called a cache. As the flows time out they are placed into a UDP datagram and sent across the network to a NetFlow Collector. The diagram below illustrates the process.

How NetFlow works

Once enabled NetFlow is used for a variety of network operations and security tasks including:

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