The Traceability of Time Synchronization: Why Internet Time Isn’t Good Enough

In today's modern networking infrastructure, great care is taken to ensure that networks are reliable, highly available and most of all, secure. Cybersecurity has emerged as a critical area in all facets of the internet. It's an area that companies spend millions on each year. Yet still, there are often-overlooked areas that degrade security. One example of this is time.

As simple as it sounds, time plays a critical role in synchronizing core business and network systems. It supports authentication protocols as well as accurate log files critical for an audit trail, which are necessary for any cyber forensics program. As such, synchronization is often a requirement for network security standards.

This White Paper discusses the differences between a time source from within the network as compared to a time source from outside the network, with considerations for traceability for a network deployment of Network Time Protocol (NTP)