A network traffic analyzer for use in analyzing a flow of network traffic between a first network and a second network , said network traffic analyzer comprising: a first interface configured for connection to the first network; a second interface configured for connection to the second network; a controller coupled to said first and second interfaces, said controller configured to: scan the network traffic between the first and second networks, wherein the network traffic includes a plurality of data packets; the network traffic analyzer being characterized in that said controller is further configured to: determine at least one character set included in each of the plurality of data packets, wherein the at least one character set is used to encode characters in digital communication, by identifying a payload area of each data packet and comparing content of the payload area to a plurality of known character sets, wherein said controller is configured to compare content of the payload area to the plurality of known character sets by comparing groups of a first number of bytes of the content to a first subset of the known character sets, and wherein the first number of bytes is a whole number multiple of a number of bytes with which a first subset of the known character sets encodes a single character; and store an indication of each character set included in each scanned data packet. a first interface configured for connection to the first network; a second interface configured for connection to the second network; a controller coupled to said first and second interfaces, said controller configured to: scan the network traffic between the first and second networks, wherein the network traffic includes a plurality of data packets; the network traffic analyzer being characterized in that said controller is further configured to: determine at least one character set included in each of the plurality of data packets, wherein the at least one character set is used to encode characters in digital communication, by identifying a payload area of each data packet and comparing content of the payload area to a plurality of known character sets, wherein said controller is configured to compare content of the payload area to the plurality of known character sets by comparing groups of a first number of bytes of the content to a first subset of the known character sets, and wherein the first number of bytes is a whole number multiple of a number of bytes with which a first subset of the known character sets encodes a single character; and store an indication of each character set included in each scanned data packet. determine at least one character set included in each of the plurality of data packets, wherein the at least one character set is used to encode characters in digital communication, by identifying a payload area of each data packet and comparing content of the payload area to a plurality of known character sets, wherein said controller is configured to compare content of the payload area to the plurality of known character sets by comparing groups of a first number of bytes of the content to a first subset of the known character sets, and wherein the first number of bytes is a whole number multiple of a number of bytes with which a first subset of the known character sets encodes a single character; and store an indication of each character set included in each scanned data packet. <EOS>