Auditing your network is a practice that is not done very often, if at all. The truth of it is that there are untold riches in all those packets flying about on your LAN. All one has to do is log them, and dig into them.

Why should I audit?
One of the important concerns that we as computer network professionals worry about in today's computing environment is spyware infiltrating in the corporate LAN. Spyware is quickly becoming more and more virulent as time marches on. There is also the stealthy threat of Trojans, and the ever-present virus.

Preparing for audit?
So are you preparing to audit your network? At IKF, our mission of auditing your network, we first take an inventory of the services the network offers. Does the corporate network have a web server, ftp server, web mail, and what type if any of database is used? Is file sharing enabled? All of these questions must be answered. Once this is done we will have properly base lined your network services and know what should be present on the LAN. All that remains traffic wise is therefore technically suspect. This is a structured and logical approach to take. It will also help to save your some time while coming through the traffic that you have collected.