Strategy NET COPS Router Flow Logs may constrain Privacy but Can Prevent Server jams and Spot Hackers. One of our engineers noticed that the character of traffic to the dorms had changed. He determined that the majority of this traffic involved our dorms and a common endpoint for traffic was the collection of Napster servers. The dorms became net producers of data rather than receivers of data, like they usually are. He was monitoring something called a router flow log, a record of the flow of Internet traffic over a router showing source and IP information.
Routers are machines that direct data traveling through cyberspace to a final destination.
Router logs are usually taken from the border router, which lies on the main pipe that brings the Internet to a campus. Flow logs can prevent traffic congestion and bandwidth overkill. They can be useful in planning server upgrades and determining where or whether to install firewalls. And they can spot problematic searching patterns from certain departments or individuals. Given their capacity, they would seem to be required tools in any campus-security organization.