Iowa Communications Network (ICN) has strengthened the state’s cybersecurity posture by integrating new Optical Test Access Points (TAPs) from Gigamon. This infrastructure upgrade marks a step forward in enhancing our Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Mitigation Platform and overall network visibility for Iowa’s critical services.
By connecting directly to the fiber optic infrastructure, the TAPs ingest traffic at various Network points, then combine the traffic into the Gigamon platform for network visibility. This infrastructure upgrade included replacing older hardware with new units that can TAP into our 100 Gigabit (Gb) connections. The earlier platform was limited to TAPs on 10Gb links. This massive increase in capacity allows ICN to filter the high-speed data that makes up today's Internet for security threats, keeping Iowa’s critical infrastructure safe with added network visibility.
Traffic at our entry points throughout the State is monitored, aggregated, and sent to our Network hub. Here's how the TAPs strengthen our security posture:
- Lossless Replication: The system makes identical copies of data packets and forwards them to our security analysis tools.
- Traffic Intelligence: Uses built-in intelligence to analyze and filter traffic. Our state government cybersecurity tools can focus on the data that matters most, improving threat detection and optimizing network performance.
- DDoS Mitigation: By seeing all the traffic entering our Network, at the highest speeds, we can identify and react swiftly to the massive flood of malicious traffic used in DDoS attacks.
The new optical TAPS are essential for our partnership with Iowa’s Department of Management, Division of Information Technology (DOM DoIT). The Gigamon platform allows ICN to securely share real-time Network traffic data with them. This enables the Executive Branch to conduct further, more sophisticated security analysis and maintain a security shield for state-wide services.