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Traffic Analysis

nounid 4463·updated Aug 30, 2026
verified· unreviewed

The analysis of patterns in communications for the purpose of gaining intelligence about a system or its users. It does not require examination of the content of the communications, which may or may not be decipherable. For example, an adversary may be able to detect a signal from a reader that could enable it to infer that a particular activity is occurring (e.g., a shipment has arrived, someone is entering a facility) without necessarily learning an identifier or associated data.

polysemousMWE

Attested in

No recorded attestations. They are written when an MWE tagging stage is completed, stamped with the pack version and the document’s digest.

Classifications

Entity Type

Threat0%rule-basedmulti_axis_classifier_low_confidence.v1

Sensitivity

60%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

Information Class

70%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

Variants

plural
Traffic Analyses
possessive
Traffic Analysis's
pluralpossessive
Traffic Analyses'

Framework definitions

NISTIR 7298: Glossary of Key Information Security Terms, Revision 23 sensesview framework →
§1
A form of passive attack in which an intruder observes information about calls (although not necessarily the contents of the messages) and makes inferences, e.g., from the source and destination numbers, or frequency and length of the messages.
§2 · sense_2_pending_review
The analysis of patterns in communications for the purpose of gaining intelligence about a system or its users. It does not require examination of the content of the communications, which may or may not be decipherable. For example, an adversary may be able to detect a signal from a reader that could enable it to infer that a particular activity is occurring (e.g., a shipment has arrived, someone is entering a facility) without necessarily learning an identifier or associated data.
§3 · sense_3_pending_review
Gaining knowledge of information by inference from observable characteristics of a data flow, even if the information is not directly available (e.g., when the data is encrypted). These characteristics include the identities and locations of the source(s) and destination(s) of the flow, and the flow's presence, amount, frequency, and duration of occurrence.
CNSSI-4009 (Glossary of Information Assurance Terms)1 senseview framework →
§1
Gaining knowledge of information by inference from observable characteristics of a data flow, even if the information is not directly available (e.g., when the data is encrypted). These characteristics include the identities and locations of the source(s) and destination(s) of the flow, and the flow's presence, amount, frequency, and duration of occurrence.
NIST SP 800-981 senseview framework →
§1
The analysis of patterns in communications for the purpose of gaining intelligence about a system or its users. It does not require examination of the content of the communications, which may or may not be decipherable. For example, an adversary may be able to detect a signal from a reader that could enable it to infer that a particular activity is occurring (e.g., a shipment has arrived, someone is entering a facility) without necessarily learning an identifier or associated data.
NIST SP 800-241 senseview framework →
§1
A form of passive attack in which an intruder observes information about calls (although not necessarily the contents of the messages) and makes inferences, e.g., from the source and destination numbers, or frequency and length of the messages.
Legacy lexicon import1 senseview framework →
§1 · legacy_primary
The analysis of patterns in communications for the purpose of gaining intelligence about a system or its users. It does not require examination of the content of the communications, which may or may not be decipherable. For example, an adversary may be able to detect a signal from a reader that could enable it to infer that a particular activity is occurring (e.g., a shipment has arrived, someone is entering a facility) without necessarily learning an identifier or associated data.
DR-088 backfill from the noun definition column

Outgoing relationships

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Incoming relationships

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