Clouseau Evaluation for Peer-to-Peer Transfer Operations

Abstract

We evaluate whether Clouseau, a commercial product from SafeMedia, Inc., is effective in discriminating between risky and non-risky P2P operations. We construct a testbed and assess the Clouseau's efficacy in interdicting risky content while passing non-risky content in both laboratory and office settings, using a wide variety of applications and protocols. We determine that Clouseau effectively blocks access to content via known P2P protocols communicating with networks identified by SafeMedia as containing risky content, but also prevents legitimate communications and does not block alternative protocols for accessing risky content. Consequently, Clouseau is not completely effective.