Black and white lists are a common security mechanism to segregate traffic and then take a specific action on that segregated traffic. A blacklist consists of malicious traffic that is specifically targeted for removal or blocking. For example, if a service provider was trying to block objectionable websites, they would put the offending sites on their blacklist and deny access, while allowing all other traffic to pass. A whitelist is just the opposite; it is a list of known “good” sites and if a site is not on the whitelist it is presumed to be bad and is thus blocked. Black and white lists accomplish the same task—block objectionable traffic—but with a completely different approach.

An ANIC SmartNIC can be used to maintain a black or white list and apply specific actions when a match is found such as drop the traffic, redirect to a specific port (e.g. for further examination) or only provide certain aspects (e.g. header only) of the packet.

To learn more about how an ANIC SmartNIC can help with your security needs, please contact us at [email protected].