What is Packet Capture in Cybersecurity?

Packet capture is the ultimate source of truth in network forensics. When a SIEM alert fires, SOC analysts pull packet captures to verify whether an attack actually occurred or is a false positive. Incident responders reconstruct attack timelines from PCAPs. Penetration testers capture traffic to find credentials transmitted in cleartext.

Cybersecurity professionals who work with Packet Capture include SOC Analyst, Incident Responder, Penetration Tester, Threat Intelligence Analyst. These roles apply Packet Capture knowledge within the Networking & Infrastructure domain.