Question 1

What is packet inspection and why is it important?

Accepted Answer

Packet inspection involves examining the data packets traveling across a network to understand their content, origin, and destination. It is essential for detecting intrusions, identifying malware communications, troubleshooting network issues, and enforcing security policies. Deep packet inspection (DPI) goes further by analyzing the payload beyond headers.

Question 2

What are common signs of malicious network traffic?

Accepted Answer

Red flags include connections to known command-and-control servers, unusual port usage, DNS tunneling patterns, large outbound data transfers at odd hours, unencrypted credentials, repeated SYN floods, and beaconing behavior where a host contacts an external server at regular intervals — a hallmark of malware callbacks.

Packet Inspector

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