Firms with background in real-time traffic monitoring, like Narus and Openet, can expand into the security space by using what they already know to monitor and analyze network traffic, and to detect and mitigate anomalous or malicious traffic, while alerting to the presence of the traffic and determining policy to deal with that traffic. “Communications Service Providers need to put more effort into understanding the behavior of their network,” said Niles. “There is no longer a clear distinction between networks and the applications and services enabled by those networks.  This means that CSPs need to take a holistic, unified approach to protecting and analyzing the behavior of their networks and services.”

The Implications

In fact, DPI for the sake of security has been in the news lately as allegations have emerged that Iran’s government used deep packet inspection (DPI) software from Nokia-Siemens that was intended for lawful intercept purposes to stifle free speech.  While NSN has no control over how their software is used by the entities that purchase it, the entire episode brings DPI to the forefront of wider public awareness, and not in a particularly flattering way.  However, this brings to mind the fact that a tool is only as noble as the person (or government) that wields it.  And how, praytell, can lawful intercept tools be kept from the lawless? 

That’s yet another question that confronts the world of communications security as it rolls into a future that’s plagued by potential problems that can only be controlled through constant vigilance.