Discord chat app detection by Rohde & Schwarz DPI software ensures optimized network usage

Rohde & Schwarz, leading vendor of deep packet inspection (DPI) software, today announced the release of a new Discord application classification feature in its DPI engine R&S®PACE 2. The OEM software solution is now able to reliably detect and classify the chat application Discord in network traffic in real time.

Discord is a modern voice and text chat app, similar to programs such as Skype or TeamSpeak, designed specifically for gaming communities. The communication platform has seen tremendous growth over the past year with currently around 130 million registered users worldwide. The number of daily active users has increased to 19 million from 8.9 million in 2017. However, its ascent to the most popular online communication tool for gamers has resulted in adverse effects on network utilization and performance. Network operators may face problems when their efforts to keep applications running fast and reliably clash with latency, congestion, packet loss and jitter. Network operators need to understand how the application and its high number of users consume bandwidth resources in order to adapt their service. They need to define traffic management policies to control application performance according to their business priorities – making sure their network services continue to meet user expectations.

Real-time application visibility provided by the DPI engine R&S®PACE 2 enables network analytics and traffic management vendors to see the impact of Discord on their networks. By embedding R&S®PACE 2, network operators obtain deep insight into Discord traffic flows that helps them analyze, control, prioritize and manage Discord traffic.

Additionally, network security vendors are now able to accurately and reliably identify unusual Discord network activities that might indicate malicious behavior. A Discord attack in 2017 has shown that cybercriminals can find ways to abuse built-in features of the chat platform — in this case, its application programming interface (API) was used to obtain user credentials for the famous online game ROBLOX in order to steal large sums of money.

“Security teams need application visibility to look at patterns in the data. A deeper level of traffic inspection is important to detect unusual activity. The new Discord detection functionality enables network security solutions to distinguish legitimate use of the chat app from malicious activity,” says Alexander Müller, Senior Product Manager DPI at Rohde & Schwarz.

The DPI software library R&S®PACE 2 provides powerful and reliable detection and classification of thousands of applications and protocols by combining deep packet inspection and behavioral traffic analysis – regardless of whether the protocols use advanced obfuscation, port-hopping techniques or encryption. DPI is needed at all points in the network architecture where intelligent decisions need to be made based on the nature of IP traffic, whether it is wanted or unwanted, good or malicious traffic.

About ipoque

ipoque, a Rohde & Schwarz company, is a leading vendor of deep packet inspection software that adds protocol and application classification capabilities to network analytics, traffic management and cybersecurity solutions. Rohde & Schwarz also provides a holistic network traffic analytics system for communication service providers that allows deep insights into network behavior, network performance and trends to optimize both quality of experience and quality of service. For more information, visit www.ipoque.com

About Rohde & Schwarz

The Rohde & Schwarz technology group develops, produces and markets innovative information and communications technology products for professional users. Rohde & Schwarz focuses on test and measurement, broadcast and media, cybersecurity, secure communications and monitoring and network testing, areas that address many different industry and government-sector market segments. Founded more than 80 years ago, the independent company has an extensive sales and service network in more than 70 countries. On June 30, 2017, Rohde & Schwarz had approximately 10,500 employees. The group achieved a net revenue of approximately EUR 1.9 billion in the 2016/2017 fiscal year (July to June). The company is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and also has regional hubs in Asia and the USA.

R&S ® is a registered trademark of Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG.