The traffic baseline plays a critical role in network security protection strategy formulation by establishing a reference point for normal network behavior. It helps identify anomalies, detect potential threats, and enable proactive defense mechanisms.
Anomaly Detection: A baseline defines expected traffic patterns, such as peak hours, protocol distribution, and data volume. Deviations from this baseline may indicate malicious activities like DDoS attacks, port scanning, or data exfiltration.
Example: If a server typically handles 100 Mbps of traffic during business hours but suddenly spikes to 1 Gbps without explanation, it could signal a DDoS attack.
Threat Identification: By comparing real-time traffic against the baseline, security systems can flag suspicious behavior, such as unusual connection attempts or unauthorized access.
Example: A sudden surge in SSH login attempts from an unknown IP address may suggest a brute-force attack.
Policy Optimization: The baseline informs security policies, such as firewall rules, rate limiting, and intrusion detection thresholds, ensuring they align with actual network usage.
Example: If the baseline shows minimal FTP traffic, strict rules can be applied to block unnecessary FTP ports, reducing attack surfaces.
Incident Response: During security incidents, the baseline helps assess the impact by comparing compromised traffic patterns with normal behavior, accelerating mitigation.
Example: If a malware outbreak causes abnormal outbound traffic to a known C2 server, the baseline helps isolate affected systems quickly.
For scalable traffic monitoring and baseline analysis, Tencent Cloud's Network Security solutions, such as DDoS Protection and Cloud Firewall, provide real-time traffic analytics and automated threat detection, helping businesses maintain a secure network environment.