Title
Network entity characterization and attack prediction
Abstract
The devastating effects of cyber-attacks, highlight the need for novel attack detection and prevention techniques. Over the last years, considerable work has been done in the areas of attack detection as well as in collaborative defense. However, an analysis of the state of the art suggests that many challenges exist in prioritizing alert data and in studying the relation between a recently discovered attack and the probability of it occurring again. In this article, we propose a system that is intended for characterizing network entities and the likelihood that they will behave maliciously in the future. Our system, namely Network Entity Reputation Database System (NERDS), takes into account all the available information regarding a network entity (e.g. IP address) to calculate the probability that it will act maliciously. The latter part is achieved via the utilization of machine learning. Our experimental results show that it is indeed possible to precisely estimate the probability of future attacks from each entity using information about its previous malicious behavior and other characteristics. Ranking the entities by this probability has practical applications in alert prioritization, assembly of highly effective blacklists of a limited length and other use cases.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1016/j.future.2019.03.016
Future Generation Computer Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
Network security,Alert sharing,Reputation database,Attack prediction,Alert prioritization,Machine learning
Use case,Ip address,Ranking,Computer security,Computer science,Prioritization,Reputation,Distributed computing
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
97
0167-739X
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Václav Bartoš122.78
Martin Zádník2417.09
Sheikh Mahbub Habib320413.65
Emmanouil Vasilomanolakis410915.20