A Distance-Based Method to Detect Anomalous Attributes in Log Files

in Proceedings of IEEE/IFIP NOMS 2012 (2012, April)

Dealing with large volumes of logs is like the prover- bial needle in the haystack problem. Finding relevant events that might be associated with an incident, or real time analysis of operational logs is ... [more ▼]

Dealing with large volumes of logs is like the prover- bial needle in the haystack problem. Finding relevant events that might be associated with an incident, or real time analysis of operational logs is extremely difficult when the underlying data volume is huge and when no explicit misuse model exists. While domain-specific knowledge and human expertise may be useful in analysing log data, automated approaches for detecting anomalies and track incidents are the only viable solutions when confronted with large volumes of data. In this paper we address the issue of automated log analysis and consider more specifically the case of ISP-provided firewall logs. We leverage approaches derived from statistical process control and information theory in order to track potential incidents and detect suspicious network activity. [less ▲]

Instant Degradation of Anonymity in Low-Latency Anonymisation Systems

in Sadre, Ramin; Novotny, Jiri; Celeda, Pavel (Eds.) et al Dependable Networks and Services, LNCS 7279 (2012)

Evaluation of Sensors in Modern Smartphones for Vehicular Traffic Monitoring

Report (2012)

NARVAL SCILAB TOOLBOX: Network Analysis and Routing eVALuation

in Abstract book of 2012 International Workshop on Scilab & OW2 (IWSO) (2012)

Network Analysis and Routing eVALuation 2.0 referenced as NARVAL has been designed on top of the Scilab environment. It has been created at the University of Luxembourg within the Interdisciplinary Centre ... [more ▼]

Network Analysis and Routing eVALuation 2.0 referenced as NARVAL has been designed on top of the Scilab environment. It has been created at the University of Luxembourg within the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT). The Centre carries out interdisciplinary research and graduate education in secure, reliable, and trustworthy ICT systems and services. This module is focusing on the analysis of network protocols. The main goal of this toolbox is to provide a complete software environment enabling the understanding of available communication algorithms, but also the design of new schemes. NARVAL permits to generate random topologies in order to study the impact of routing algorithms on the effectiveness of transmission protocols used by data communications. The target audience includes academics, students, engineers and scientists. We put some efforts to build detailed help files. The description of each function has been carefully done in order to facilitate the end users' comprehension. The module is self-sufficient as it does not depend on other internal/external Scilab toolboxes. NARVAL is running on the current release Scilab 5.3.3. We decided to create a specific classification according to the goal of each function: NARVAL_D_* (topology Discovery), NARVAL_F_* (general Functions), NARVAL_G_* (Graph), NARVAL_IP_* (Image Processing), NARVAL_I_* ( Internet traffic), NARVAL_M_* (Mobility), NARVAL_P_* (Peer-to-Peer), NARVAL_R_* (Routing), NARVAL_S_* (Security), NARVAL_T_* (Topology generation) and NARVAL_W_* (Wireless Sensor Network). This work was carried out as part of the EU FP7 BUTLER project (http://www.iot-butler.eu). [less ▲]

Improving Highway Traffic through Partial Velocity Synchronization

in Proceedings of the IEEE Global Communications Conference 2012 (2012)

In this paper we address the problem of uncoor- dinated highway traffic. We first identify the main causes of the capacity drop, namely high traffic demand and inadequate driver reaction. In the past ... [more ▼]

In this paper we address the problem of uncoor- dinated highway traffic. We first identify the main causes of the capacity drop, namely high traffic demand and inadequate driver reaction. In the past, traffic and user behavior have been accurately described by cellular automata (CA) models. In this paper we extend the CA model to deal with highway traffic fluctuations and jams. Specifically, the model incorporates the communication layer between vehicles. The model thus enables us to study the impact of inter-vehicular communications and in particular the delivery of critical and timely upstream traffic information on driver reaction. Based on the newly-available traffic metrics, we propose an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that suggests non-intuitive speed reduction in order to avoid the formation of so-called phantom jams. The results show that using such a system considerably increases the overall traffic flow, reduces travel time and avoids unnecessary slow-downs. [less ▲]

Measuring anonymity using network coordinate systems

in International Symposium on Communications and Information Technologies (ISCIT), 2011 (2011)

Popularity and awareness of anonymisation systems increased tremendously over the past years, however only a very few systems made it from research to production. These systems usually add intermediate ... [more ▼]

Popularity and awareness of anonymisation systems increased tremendously over the past years, however only a very few systems made it from research to production. These systems usually add intermediate nodes in the communication path aiming to hide user identities. Several attacks against these systems exist, like timing attacks or exploitation of latency information. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to disclose users of current popular anonymisation systems in practice by the means of virtual network coordinate systems, a widely accepted method for latency prediction and network optimisation. Mapping physical nodes to a n-dimensional space can reveal a geographical proximity that is used to disclose users, who expect to stay anonymous. We define a model that leverages network coordinates in order to measure quantitatively the anonymity services and evaluate it on the Planet-Lab research network. The basic idea is to analyse the relative distance between nodes and to calculate the probability of nodes being hosted in the same location. Evaluation proves that our proposed model can be used as a measure of anonymity. [less ▲]

Website Fingerprinting in Onion Routing Based Anonymization Networks

in 18th ACM Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS) Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES) (2011)

Detection of Abnormal Behaviour in a Surveillance Environment Using Control Charts

in 8th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-Based Surveillance, 2011 (2011)

This paper introduces a new approach to unsupervised detection of abnormal sequences of images in video surveillance data. We leverage an online object detection method and statistical process control ... [more ▼]

This paper introduces a new approach to unsupervised detection of abnormal sequences of images in video surveillance data. We leverage an online object detection method and statistical process control techniques in order to identify suspicious sequences of events. Our method assumes a training phase in which the spatial distribution of objects is learned, followed by a chart-based tracking process. We evaluate the performance of our method on a standard dataset and have implemented a publicly available opensource prototype. [less ▲]

Comparison of Low-Latency Anonymous Communication Systems - Practical Usage and Performance

in Ninth Australasian Information Security Conference (2011)

The most popular system for providing practical low-latency anonymity on the Internet is Tor. However, many other tools besides Tor exist as both free and commercial solutions. In this paper, we consider ... [more ▼]

The most popular system for providing practical low-latency anonymity on the Internet is Tor. However, many other tools besides Tor exist as both free and commercial solutions. In this paper, we consider five most popular low-latency anonymisation services that represent the current state of the art: single-hop proxies (Perfect Privacy and free proxies) and Onion Routing based solutions (Tor, I2P, and Jon-Donym). We assess their usability and rank them in regard to their anonymity. We also assess their efficiency and reliability. To this end, we define a set of metrics and present extensive measurements based on round-trip time, inter-packet delay variation and throughput. Apart from the technical realization, economic aspects are also crucial for anonymous communication systems. In order to attract more users, which is mandatory in order to improve anonymity per se, systems need to exhibit a certain payoff. We therefore define an economic model that takes all relevant aspects into consideration. In this paper, we describe the results obtained, lessons learned, and provide guidance for selecting the most appropriate system with respect to a set of requirements. [less ▲]

Interoperable Networking Applications for Emergency Services

in International Journal of Multimedia and Ubiquitous Engineering (2009), 4(1), 1122