Due to the invention of automated hacking tools, Hacking is not a black art anymore. Even script kiddies can launch attacks in few seconds. Therefore, there is a great emphasize on the Security to protect the resources from camouflage. Intrusion Detection System is also one weapon in the security arsenal. It is the process of monitoring and analyzing information sources in order to detect vicious traffic. With its unique capabilities like monitoring, analyzing, detecting and archiving, IDS assists the organizations to combat against threats, to have a snap-shot of the networks, and to conduct Forensic Analysis. Unfortunately there are myriad products inthe market. Selecting a right product at time is difficult. Due to the wide spread rumors and paranoia, in this work I have presented the state-of-the-art IDS technologies, assessed the products, and evaluated. I have also presented some of the novel challenges that IDS products are suffering. This work will be a great help for pursuing IDS technology and to deploy Intrusion Detection Systems in an organization. It also gives in-depth knowledge of the present IDS challenges.

ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / iNet is a project aimed at improving and modernizing telemetry systems by moving from a link to a networking solution. Changes introduce new risks and vulnerabilities. The nature of the security of the telemetry system changes when the elements are in an Ethernet and TCP/IP network configuration. The network will require protection from intrusion and malware that can be initiated internal to, or external of the network boundary. In this paper we will discuss how to detect and counter FTP password attacks using the Hidden Markov Model for intrusion detection. We intend to discover and expose the more subtle iNet network vulnerabilities and make recommendations for a more secure telemetry environment.

Computer networks are already ubiquitous in people’s lives and work and network security is becoming a critical part. A simple firewall, which can only scan the bottom four OSI layers, cannot satisfy all security requirements. An intrusion detection system (IDS) with deep packet inspection, which can filter all seven OSI layers, is becoming necessary for more and more networks. However, the processing throughputs of the IDSs are far behind the current network speed. People have begun to improve the performance of the IDSs by implementing them on different hardware platforms, such as Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or some special network processors. Nevertheless, all of these options are either less flexible or more expensive to deploy. This research focuses on some possibilities of implementing a parallelized IDS on a general computer environment based on Snort, which is the most popular open-source IDS at the moment. In this thesis, some possible methods have been analyzed for the parallelization of the pattern-matching engine based on a multicore computer. However, owing to the small granularity of the network packets, the pattern-matching engine of Snort is unsuitable for parallelization. In addition, a pipelined structure of Snort has been implemented and analyzed. The universal packet capture API - LibPCAP has been modified for a new feature, which can capture a packet directly to an external buffer. Then, the performance of the pipelined Snort can have an improvement up to 60% on an Intel i7 multicore computer for jumbo frames. A primary limitation is on the memory bandwidth. With a higher bandwidth, the performance of the parallelization can be further improved.

With more than 5 billion users globally, mobile devices have become ubiquitous in our daily life. The modern mobile handheld device is capable of providing many multimedia services through a wide range of applications over multiple networks as well as on the handheld device itself. These services are predominantly driven by data, which is increasingly associated with sensitive information. Such a trend raises the security requirement for reliable and robust verification techniques of users.This thesis explores the end-user verification requirements of mobile devices and proposes a novel Behaviour Profiling security framework for mobile devices. The research starts with a critical review of existing mobile technologies, security threats and mechanisms, and highlights a broad range of weaknesses. Therefore, attention is given to biometric verification techniques which have the ability to offer better security. Despite a large number of biometric works carried out in the area of transparent authentication systems (TAS) and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), each have a set of weaknesses that fail to provide a comprehensive solution. They are either reliant upon a specific behaviour to enable the system to function or only capable of providing security for network based services. To this end, the behaviour profiling technique is identified as a potential candidate to provide high level security from both authentication and IDS aspects, operating in a continuous and transparent manner within the mobile host environment.This research examines the feasibility of a behaviour profiling technique through mobile users general applications usage, telephone, text message and multi-instance application usage with the best experimental results Equal Error Rates (EER) of 13.5%, 5.4%, 2.2% and 10% respectively. Based upon this information, a novel architecture of Behaviour Profiling on mobile devices is proposed. The framework is able to provide a robust, continuous and non-intrusive verification mechanism in standalone, TAS or IDS modes, regardless of device hardware configuration. The framework is able to utilise user behaviour to continuously evaluate the system security status of the device. With a high system security level, users are granted with instant access to sensitive services and data, while with lower system security levels, users are required to reassure their identity before accessing sensitive services.The core functions of the novel framework are validated through the implementation of a simulation system. A series of security scenarios are designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the novel framework to verify legitimate and imposter activities. By employing the smoothing function of three applications, verification time of 3 minutes and a time period of 60 minutes of the degradation function, the Behaviour Profiling framework achieved the best performance with False Rejection Rate (FRR) rates of 7.57%, 77% and 11.24% for the normal, protected and overall applications respectively and with False Acceptance Rate (FAR) rates of 3.42%, 15.29% and 4.09% for their counterparts.

This thesis examines the main implications, as well as future possibilities and challenges of a high-tech ID-system for refugees in Uganda. The implemented system captures biometric information and targets the UN sustainable development goal 16.9 legal identity for all. Through examining the involved parties’ experiences, perceptions and attitudes towards the digital ID system, the study contextualizes a global high-tech system in local rural areas. It moreover highlights the importance of social and geographical factors. The thesis is a result of a qualitative field study in Uganda where governmental and NGO representatives, working in the refugee settlements, were interviewed. The findings show that the IDs have improved the Ugandan refugee response and function as a base for delivering and receiving assistance in terms of food and cash distribution as well as access to SIM-cards. The IDs also give the providers more accurate data about the refugees, enabling population tracking for protection. The data is however sensitive and vulnerable to bias and misusage. Lastly, the provided IDs are important for an increased inclusion of refugees in Uganda aligned with the global goal.

<p>A honeypot is an attractive computer target placed inside a network to lure the attackers into it. There are many advantages of this technology, like, information about attacker's tools and techniques can be fingerprinted, malicious traffic can be diverted away from the real target etc. With the increased activity from the blackhat community day by day, honeypots could be an effective weapon in the</p><p>network security administrator's armor. They have been studied rigorously during the past few years as a part of the security</p><p>industry's drive to combat malicious traffic. While the whitehats are trying to make honeypots stealthier, blackhats are coming up with techniques to identify them (therefore nullifying any</p><p>further use) or worse, use them in their favor. The game is on. The goal of this thesis is to study different architectural issues regarding honeypot deployment, various stages in utilizing honeypots like forensic analysis etc. Other concepts like IDSs and firewalls which are used in conjunction with honeypots are also discussed, because security is about cooperation among different security components. In the security industry, it is customary for whitehats to watch what blackhats are doing and vice versa. So the thesis</p><p>discusses recent techniques to defeat honeypots and risks involved in deploying honeypots. Commercial viability of honeypots and business cases for outsourcing honeypot maintenance are presented. A great interest from the security community about honeypots has propelled the research and resulted in various new and innovative applications of honeypots. Some of these applications, which made an impact, are discussed. Finally, future directions in research in honeypot technology are perused.</p>

<p>The goal of this report is to investigate firewalls from both the software and the hardware architecture on their security, functionality, effectives and how the configuration works. The test will consist of scans from Nessus and Nmap which both scans for information and vulnerabilities on the target device. The scans will be performed by first make a basic configuration of the firewall to test its base security. In the second scan will the devices be security configured and rescanned to give an overview on how secure they have become. The target software firewalls used in this test consists of a Debian 4.0, Mikrotik and a Windows 2003 server. The Debian and Windows distributions are both a full OS and have firewall capabilities while Mikrotik is a Linux distribution optimized to work as a firewall. A Cisco 2801 router will also be tested as it is a hardware device optimized for packet handling and have firewall capabilities, and as a router it's likely to already be in a company's network. Finally a Cisco ASA 5510 hardware firewall will be tested to show how a device designed as a firewall will compare to the other devices. The result shows that a Device like the ASA 5510 is clearly superior to any of the other devices in its performance, however the cost efficiency might be in question. The use of a software firewall might be more cost efficient, but might also be more vulnerable as other applications can be run at the OS.</p>

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) are designed to monitor a networked environment and generate alerts whenever abnormal activities are detected. The number of these alerts can be very large making their evaluation by security analysts a difficult task. The management is complicated by the need to configure the different components of alert evaluation systems. In addition, IDS alert management techniques, such as clustering and correlation, suffer from involving unrelated alerts in their processes and consequently provide results that are inaccurate and difficult to manage. Thus, the tuning of an IDS alert management system in order to provide optimal results remains a major challenge, which is further complicated by the large spectrum of potential attacks the system can be subject to. This thesis considers the specification and configuration issues of FuzMet, a novel IDS alert management system which employs several metrics and a fuzzy-logic based approach for scoring and prioritizing alerts. In addition, it features an alert rescoring technique that leads to a further reduction of the number of alerts. We study the impact of different configurations of the proposed metrics on the accuracy and completeness of the alert scores generated by FuzMet. Our approach is validated using the 2000 DARPA intrusion detection scenario specific datasets and comparative results between the Snort IDS alert scoring and FuzMet alert prioritization scheme are presented. A considerable number of simulations were conducted in order to determine the optimal configuration of FuzMet with selected simulation results presented and analyzed.

The goal of this report is to investigate firewalls from both the software and the hardware architecture on their security, functionality, effectives and how the configuration works. The test will consist of scans from Nessus and Nmap which both scans for information and vulnerabilities on the target device. The scans will be performed by first make a basic configuration of the firewall to test its base security. In the second scan will the devices be security configured and rescanned to give an overview on how secure they have become. The target software firewalls used in this test consists of a Debian 4.0, Mikrotik and a Windows 2003 server. The Debian and Windows distributions are both a full OS and have firewall capabilities while Mikrotik is a Linux distribution optimized to work as a firewall. A Cisco 2801 router will also be tested as it is a hardware device optimized for packet handling and have firewall capabilities, and as a router it's likely to already be in a company's network. Finally a Cisco ASA 5510 hardware firewall will be tested to show how a device designed as a firewall will compare to the other devices. The result shows that a Device like the ASA 5510 is clearly superior to any of the other devices in its performance, however the cost efficiency might be in question. The use of a software firewall might be more cost efficient, but might also be more vulnerable as other applications can be run at the OS.

In last few years we have observed a significant increase in the usage of computing devices and their capabilities to communicate with each other. With the increase in usage and communicating capabilities the higher level of network security is also required. Today the main devices used for the network security are the firewalls and IDS/IPS that provide perimeter defense. Both devices provide many overlapping security features but they have different aims, different protection potential and need to be used together. A firewall is an active device that implements ACLs and restricts unauthorized access to protected resources. An IDS only provides information for further necessary actions, not necessarily perimeter related, but some of these needed actions can be automated, such as automatic blocking in the firewall of attacking sites, which creates an IPS. This thesis report analyzed some common firewall and IDS products, and described their security features, functionalities, and limitations in detail. It also contains the comparison of the security features of the both devices. The firewall and IDS perform different functions for the network security, so they should be used in layered defense architecture. The passwords, firewalls, IDSs/IPSs and physical security all together provide a layered defense and complement each other. The firewall and IDS alone cannot offer sufficient network protection against the network attacks, and they should be used together to enhance the defense-in-depth or layered approach.