Monitoring secured network using network tap devices

Abstract

A network tap device is configured to join a secured network to be monitored through a joining process. The joining process includes communicating with the access point to obtain security keys of the monitored network and communicating with the access point to obtain a network address for the network tap device. After joining the secured network, the network tap device collects the network data on the secured network. Collecting the network data includes detecting network traffic on the monitored network, the network traffic containing encrypted data and unencrypted data, decrypting the encrypted data in the network traffic using the security keys to generate decrypted data, and adding the decrypted data and unencrypted data to the network data. The network tap device further transmits the collected network data to a monitoring workstation via a data transmission network.