Traffic-Flow Security

Definition - What does Traffic-Flow Security mean?

Traffic-flow security is the use of various measures or methods to hide the presence of messages across a communicational medium, or to otherwise cloak messaging to prevent the observation of traffic levels across an IT infrastructure.

The idea behind traffic-flow security is that even in highly protected systems, it might still be possible for outsiders to ascertain the amount of traffic over a system at any given time. The use of traffic-flow security tools makes it impossible for external observers to see whether traffic is changing in real time, or when any individual message goes from one location to another.

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Techopedia explains Traffic-Flow Security

There are several methods for traffic-flow security. One involves the use of dummy traffic in addition to the encryption of actual messages, and sender and receiver addresses. This can make it look like a system is experiencing a consistently high level of traffic in order to obscure the actual volume of traffic in the network. Another option is to send a continuous encrypted signal even when a network is not being used.

The principle behind traffic-flow security shows how businesses and other parties may guard even seemingly basic data such as the date and time that someone accesses a platform, or when they send a message. In some situations, this data is not regarded as necessarily private; in other cases, it may be necessary to hide traffic on a platform where knowledge of access times and traffic levels could be used inappropriately by an outside observer.