Network Security Through Data Analysis

Preface

This book is about networks: monitoring them, studying them, and using the results of those studies to improve them. “Improve” in this context hopefully means to make more secure, but I don’t believe we have the vocabulary or knowledge to say that confidently—at least not yet. In order to implement security, we try to achieve something more quantifiable and describable: situational awareness.

Situational awareness, a term largely used in military circles, is exactly what it says on the tin: an understanding of the environment you’re operating in. For our purposes, situational awareness encompasses understanding the components that make up your network and how those components are used. This awareness is often radically different from how the network is configured and how the network was originally designed.

To understand the importance of situational awareness in information security, I want you to think about your home, and I want you to count the number of web servers in your house. Did you include your wireless router? Your cable modem? Your printer? Did you consider the web interface to CUPS? How about your television set?

To many IT managers, several of the devices listed didn’t even register as “web servers.” However, embedded web servers speak HTTP, they have known vulnerabilities, and they are increasingly common as specialized control protocols are replaced with a web interface. Attackers will often hit embedded systems without realizing what they are—the SCADA system ...