Big data is all around us.
It flows into and out of corporate and home networks and includes web traffic, email, and the exchanging of digital files. Web connected mobile devices especially generate an enormous and unpredictable amount of network traffic at the carrier level, and there are no signs of it slowing. In many parts of the world and where underground cable is too difficult or expensive to bury, mobile infrastructures are becoming the manner in which developing countries are connecting to the Internet.
The official theme of RSA 2013 was rightfully dubbed “Security in Knowledge: Mastering Data. Securing the World.”
The mastering or understanding of the massive amounts of data sets stemming from electronic devices all over the world can be overwhelming, and many professionals, entities and consumers are racing to make sense of it all.
IT professionals are challenged with deciphering legit versus potentially malicious enterprise network traffic, in addition to filtering not-safe-for-work content. Internet service providers and mobile carriers are demanding newfound business insights into how their networks are being used and for what types of activity so they can optimize their offerings. Online advertising technology providers and publishers continue deploying sophisticated cookies to track and translate actions across various web properties so that more relevant ads can be served. At the end point, consumers continue to wrestle with understanding the implications of their day-to-day web surfing habits as it relates to their online privacy. If one considers all the websites a person visits daily, the digital files that are downloaded and shared, and the high frequency of such activity, granular behavioral profiling can have its benefits. Trending data usage, for example, can help detect and prevent fraud when online behavior falls outside the “norm.”
These are only some of the challenges faced and use cases for deciphering big data. Securing big data is an entirely separate hurdle and the first step has seemingly been to implement an advanced analytics solution to begin capturing network traffic.
zvelo already captures tens of billions of URL queries each day from all over the world. The content viewed on each URL is also categorized and stored in a master URL database. This categorization engine and URL database can be licensed and integrated to enhance or develop real-world data analytics applications to help solve some of the aforementioned challenges. Handling big data is confusing and zvelo strives to help make sense of it all one technology partner at a time.
