Packet Sniffing for Automated Chat Room Monitoring and Evidence Preservation

Packet sniffers are designed to intercept network traffic in shared communication channels. This is accomplished by re-configuring network interface cards to permit device drivers to process all network traffic, including packets that are not addressed to the host computer. Packet sniffing is primarily used in intrusion detection, network management, wiretapping and hacking. This paper describes a novel application of packet sniffing to monitor chat room conversations for criminal activity. Current manual monitoring techniques must scrutinize massive amounts of conversations for potential criminal activity. The packet sniffer described in this paper permits the automated monitoring and filtering of chat room conversations. Moreover, it records and preserves packet-based evidence, enabling the complete reconstruction of illicit chat room activity for purposes of prosecution. Keywords— Packet sniffing, filtering, chat room monitor-