Cybersecurity Data Analytics Overview
Cybersecurity Data Analytics Overview
Cyber security
-Understanding
sources of
Cybersecurity data-
Dr Fouzi Harrag
2024/2025
1
12/16/2024 Data Analytics for Cybersecurity
End to End Opportunities for data collection
• Log Data
• Router Connectivity and Log Data
• Firewall Log Data
• Raw pay load data
• Network Topology data
Outline • User system data
• Other Datasets
Request Request
Business Application
User Internet
Response Response
The logical view of the user requesting access to a business application can appear to be
fairly straightforward
Within this pipeline there could be several points through which the request and response
pass
Leading to several opportunities in the end-to-end process for data collection to help
understand when a cyber threat may occur in this process
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• User request on a network– follow a complex networking pipeline
• The user may have a firewall on their own system and the router through which
they send out the request
• This request can be filtered through the internet service provider
• lookups can be performed in the domain name system (DNS) and
• the data can be routed through multiple paths of routers, which are linked
Physical View through the routing table
• The request on the other side may again have to pass through the routers and firewalls
at multiple points in the system being accessed by the user
• There may be multiple intrusion detection systems (IDS) posted throughout the
systems to monitor the network flow for malicious activity
• This is just one example scenario; different network layouts will result in different
types of intermediate steps in this process of request and response, particularly based
on
• the type of response
• the type of network being used
• the type of organization of business applications
• the cloud infrastructure being used
• However, certain key components are always present that allow for multiple
opportunities to glean and scour for data related to potential cyber threats
• The method and level of data collection will also vary based on the application domains for
Sources of which the networks are being used and the important assets being protected
Cybersecurity • Social media businesses, such Facebook, are primarily user data driven, where the
revenue is based on providing access to user data and monitoring usage data
Data and • E-commerce businesses, such as Amazon, are usage and product delivery based
Variations • Portals, such as Yahoo, are again user data driven but more heavily reliant on
advertisements, which can target users based on what they see and use most often
• Cyberphysical systems, such as systems for monitoring and managing power grids, are
based on accurate functioning of physical systems and delivery of services to users over
these physical infrastructural elements
• The level of monitoring and management of data will vary with the level of prevention,
detection, or recovery expected in the domain
• Some domains have a high emphasis on prevention; others may have a high level of emphasis
on detection or recovery
• In all such cases, multiple types of datasets can be collected to provide intelligence on the
cyber threats, and user behaviors can be evaluated to prevent future threats or even identify
an insider propagating the threats
Data over the There are several Payload data can be This data may be Payload data is Payload data can be
network contains privacy concerns in accessed only where encrypted, so its accessible through massive even for a
accessing this legally allowed and usefulness as raw packet sniffers such few minutes of data
The header payload data since users have provided data to be mined is as Wireshark, where capture
information, which this data is the permissions to limited the data dump of
stores data about actual content that access this data the traffic can be
source and is being sent which retrieved
destination among may be under strict
other things and access controls
the actual content
being transmitted,
referred to as
payload
A computer network can be represented as a Network traffic data dump can be used to Header data collected from a traffic dump file
graph in terms of the structure of the network and generate the communication graphs through Wireshark can be utilized to plot the
in terms of the communication taking place over communication between the source and
the networks destination IP addresses, which become the
vertices of each edge in the graph
Example
extraction of
communication
graph from
network traffic
Header data collected
from a traffic dump file
through Wireshark can
be utilized to plot the
communication
between the source
and destination IP
addresses, which
become the vertices of
each edge in the
graph.
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Data Analytics for Cybersecurity
• Key features can be extracted to monitor unusual activities at the
individual system level
• Examples: active process resident memory usage, which is available
for all operating systems (OS) and allows for building a profile on the
normal memory usage of a process over time
• An abnormal spike in memory usage can be attributed to processing
a large volume of data
• Useful in detecting a potential insider threat, especially when
User System integrated with other user behavioral data from sensors monitoring
user stress levels or integrating with other log datasets
Data • CPU time utilization can be used for measuring system usage
• Several OS-specific features, such as kernel modules and changes in
registry values
• It is important to use multiple signatures over time from several of the
features to eliminate the regular spikes of day-to-day operations
• Key differentiator for a robust analysis where we do not simply rely on one
or two features but multiple features and their stable signatures (as
compared to historical data) to distinguish alerts
• Tools such as OSQuery and Snare can facilitate capture of these features
System level sensors (current, voltage in different bus inside PC, Almost all peripherals
CPU/GPU fan speed etc)
National Vulnerability Database from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Trends can be analyzed for several years and across major releases for operating systems to
reinforce knowledge of choices for critical infrastructural or network projects
NVD is built on the concept of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE), which is a dictionary of
publicly known vulnerabilities and exposures
CVEs allow the standardization of vulnerabilities across products around the world. NVD scores
every vulnerability using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)
CVSS is comprised of several submetrics, including (a) base, (b) temporal, and (c) environmental
metrics. Each of these metrics quantifies some type of feature of a vulnerability
14
BUFFER XSS
12
50
45
10
40
35
8
30
Number
6 25
20
4 15
10
2
5
0
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Year
• Can we identify these key changes that are deviant from the normal changes in
a communication pattern and associate them with anomalies in the network
traffic?
Integrated Use of
As attacks may have a spatial pattern, sources and destinations in
Multiple Datasets: certain geolocations can be more important for monitoring and
Key Questions to preventing an attack
Consider • Can key geolocations that are sources of attacks, or key geolocations that are
destinations of attacks, be identified?
• Can IP spoofing be mitigated by looking at multiple data sources to supplement
the knowledge of a geospatial traffic pattern?
Router connectivity and Sklower 1991, Tsuchiya 1988, Geocoding Infosec 2013, Kim
log data Zetter Security 2013 , Jian 2007 Suspicious rerouting, traffic hijacking, bogus routes
Generate efficient rule sets, anomaly detection in
Firewall log data Golnabi et al. 2006, Abedin et al. 2010 policy rules
Wang and Stolfo 2004, Kim et al. 2014, Limmer and Malware detection, embedded malware, user
Raw payload data Dressler 2010, Parekh et al. 2006, Roy 2014 behavior
Massicotte et al. 2003, Nicosia 2013, Namayanja and Janeja Consistent and inconsistent nodes, time points
Network topology 2015 and 2017, corresponding to anomalous activity
User system data Stephens and Maloof 2014, Meigham 2016 User profiles, user behavior data, insider threats
Access control Data Vaidya et al. 2007, Mitra et al. 2016 Generate efficient access control roles
Browser security indicators, security cues, user
Eye tracker data Darwish and Bataineh 2012 behavior
Vulnerability data Frei et al. 2006 Vulnerability trend discovery
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