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At least 19 records

Data Intensive Architecture for Scalable Cyber Analytics

Cyber analysts are tasked with the identification and mitigation of network exploits and threats. These compromises are difficult to identify due to the characteristics of cyber communication, the volume of traffic, and the duration of possible attack. In this paper, we describe a prototype implementation designed to provide cyber analysts an environment where they can interactively explore a month’s worth of cyber security data. This prototype utilized On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) techniques to present a data cube to the analysts. The cube provides a summary of the data, allowing trends to be easily identified as well as the ability to easily pull up the original records comprising an event of interest. The cube was built using SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS), with the interface to the cube provided by Tableau. This software infrastructure was supported by a novel hardware architecture comprising a Netezza TwinFin® for the underlying data warehouse and a cube server with a FusionIO drive hosting the data cube. We evaluated this environment on a month’s worth of artificial, but realistic, data using multiple queries provided by our cyber analysts. As our results indicate, OLAP technology has progressed to the point where it is in a unique position to provide novel insights to cyber analysts, as long as it is supported by an appropriate data intensive architecture.

Olsen, Bryan K.↗

Analytics for Cyber Network Defense

This report provides a brief survey of analytics tools considered relevant to cyber network defense (CND). Ideas and tools come from elds such as statistics, data mining, and knowledge discovery. Some analytics are considered standard mathematical or statistical techniques, while others re ect current research directions. In all cases the report attempts to explain the relevance to CND with brief examples.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Visualization Techniques for Computer Network Defense

Effective visual analysis of computer network defense (CND) information is challenging due to the volume and complexity of both the raw and analyzed network data. A typical CND is comprised of multiple niche intrusion detection tools, each of which performs network data analysis and produces a unique alerting output. The state-of-the-practice in the situational awareness of CND data is the prevalent use of custom-developed scripts by Information Technology (IT) professionals to retrieve, organize, and understand potential threat events. We propose a new visual analytics framework, called the Oak Ridge Cyber Analytics (ORCA) system, for CND data that allows an operator to interact with all detection tool outputs simultaneously. Aggregated alert events are presented in multiple coordinated views with timeline, cluster, and swarm model analysis displays. These displays are complemented with both supervised and semi-supervised machine learning classifiers. The intent of the visual analytics framework is to improve CND situational awareness, to enable an analyst to quickly navigate and analyze thousands of detected events, and to combine sophisticated data analysis techniques with interactive visualization such that patterns of anomalous activities may be more easily identified and investigated.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Flexible and Adaptive Malware Identification Using Techniques from Biology

The holy grail in cyber analytics is to find new ways to understand the information we already have access to. One way to do that is to characterize the data into reasonable sizes and then leverage any known information to generate new insights. Biologists have been using a similar process for decades. This paper introduces the MLSTONES tool set that was developed by leveraging biology and bioinformatics, high performance computing, and statistical algorithms applied to cyber data and specifically to malware. Furthermore, the paper discusses the tool suite, its applications, and how it compares or can work with other related tools.

Peterson, Elena S.↗

Demythifying Cybersecurity

Consider a face-to-face meeting of exactly five people in a closed and shielded room, hidden from view, with no other communications equipment present. With proper screening, participants can be reasonably sure that the conversation will only be available in real time to those in the room, that the words they hear are the ones spoken by their companions, and that everyone receives them at the same time. Now suppose this same meeting were held as an Internet video conference with the participants scattered over the globe. The attendees may have similar expectations, but meeting those expectations is considerably more difficult. For instance, the administrators of the systems that the participants are using could manipulate the flow of data to rebroadcast, or even change, what individual participants see and hear. In many cases, ISPs and other intermediate providers can do the same; at the least, they can interfere with the transmission. An external attacker who can break into the participants’ systems can do the same. And there may be no proof, or even indications, that the meeting was compromised. As cybersecurity professionals, we understand this - but does the population at large know what happens to their tweets once they leave their smart phones?

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Combining Tensor Decompositions and Graph Analytics to Provide Cyber Situational Awareness at HPC Scale

This paper describes MADHAT (Multidimensional Anomaly Detection fusing HPC, Analytics, and Tensors), an integrated workflow that demonstrates the applicability of HPC resources to the problem of maintaining cyber situational awareness. MADHAT combines two high-performance packages: ENSIGN for large-scale sparse tensor decompositions and HAGGLE for graph analytics. Tensor decompositions isolate coherent patterns of network behavior in ways that common clustering methods based on distance metrics cannot. Parallelized graph analysis then uses directed queries on a representation that combines the elements of identified patterns with other available information (such as additional log fields, domain knowledge, network topology, whitelists and blacklists, prior feedback, and published alerts) to confirm or reject a threat hypothesis, collect context, and raise alerts. MADHAT was developed using the collaborative HPC Architecture for Cyber Situational Awareness (HACSAW) research environment and evaluated on structured network sensor logs collected from Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN) sites using HPC resources at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center DoD Supercomputing Resource Center (ERDC DSRC). To date, MADHAT has analyzed logs with over 650 million entries.

Cyber security, Tensor decomposition, graph analyt↗

Analytic framework for the United States cyber deterrence strategy. Final draft, 2nd submission (20 May 2015]

If the United States (U.S.) government allows cyberattacks to continue on their current trajectory of increased frequency and effect, the bonds holding our society together will be jeopardized, potentially impacting the survival of our society as we know it. Actions must be taken not only to defend against, but also to deter future cyberattacks. To achieve a credible and actionable U.S. Cyber Deterrence Strategy, the following three lines of effort are recommended for implementation by the White House: 1. Add a sixth priority to the Obama Administration's current cyberspace priorities to state: "Advance our cyber response policies and capabilities to further protect the country's national interests by deterring attacks within cyberspace." 2. Adopt the proposed Cyber Deterrence Analytic Framework as a guide for policy makers to use when determining the appropriate response to a cyberattack. 3. Implement the proposed Presidential Policy Directive outlining the United States' deterrence policy for cyber. These recommendations for establishing a U.S. Cyber Deterrence Strategy address the following key findings: As the U.S. private sector owns and operates over 90% of all of the networks and infrastructure of cyberspace, an effective policy must be communicated clearly across the government, business enterprise, and most importantly, to the people; More so than any time in our nation's history, individuals, companies, and organizations depend on cyberspace for uses ranging from social interactions to sustaining democracy; Threats existing within the cyber domain have grown both in attack vector complexity and societal impact; and, The current Presidential Executive Orders and Policy Directives related to cyber deterrence do not include a strategy for deterring attacks. The concepts presented in this paper were derived from interviews with experts in subjects ranging from deterrence philosophy, nuclear weapons implementation, U.S. cyber operations, and U.S. cyber policy. In addition, theories on deterrence strategies are explored, ranging from the 1960s to present to develop a deterrence strategy unique to cyber. Lastly, recent examples of cyberattacks are examined to provide evidence for the need to establish consequences for those individuals or countries that continue to behave nefariously within cyberspace. To form a strong foundation for a U.S. Cyber Deterrence Strategy, the U.S. must establish and clearly articulate the consequences for nations or individuals if they choose to initiate a cyberattack on the U.S. or its national interests.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Situational Awareness of Grid Anomalies (SAGA) for Visual Analytics—Near-Real-Time Cyber-Physical Resiliency Through Machine Learning

The Situational Awareness of Grid Anomalies (SAGA) project built upon foundational power system tools developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) integrated with an ever-increasing set of Gridmetrics data extracted from the cable television (CATV) broadband network infrastructure while assimilating other time-series geospatial data and information, such as weather and cyber-physical phenomena, to demonstrate a disruptive technology for power system data analytics relying on existing infrastructure. Three research thrusts supported (1) visual analytics, (2) cyber-physical power system simulation, and (3) anomaly detection. SAGA created technology that leverages, couples, and fortifies two vastly different realms - power and broadband - to increase the resiliency of the power grid in the face of increasing cyberattacks and operational challenges related to integrating DERs. The exploration of potential synergies of broadband-enabled grids resulted in identifying a mutually beneficial symbiosis that can increase the resiliency of both power and broadband services. Broadband networks perform better with reliable power and are good at providing real-time measurements that identify where the grid is under attack, is failing, or is weak. Likewise, sensor-starved distribution grids perform better and can be more reliable when their operation is buttressed with observations of broadband-detected anomalies. Future research can explore broadband's contribution to continuing to improve grid resiliency, reliability, and cost-effective operation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Long Island Smart Energy Corridor

The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) has teamed with Stony Brook University (Stony Brook or SBU) and Farmingdale State College (Farmingdale or FSC), two branches of the State University of New York (SUNY), to create a “Smart Energy Corridor.” The project, located along the Route 110 business corridor on Long Island, New York, demonstrated the integration of a suite of Smart Grid technologies from substations to end-use loads. The Smart Energy Corridor Project included the following key features: -TECHNOLOGY: Demonstrated a full range of smart energy technologies, including substations and distribution feeder automation, fiber and radio communications backbone, advanced metering infrastructure (AM”), meter data management (MDM) system (which LIPA implemented outside of this project), field tools automation, customer-level energy management including automated energy management systems, and integration with distributed generation and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. -MARKETING: A rigorous market test that identified customer response to an alternative time-of-use pricing plan and varying levels of information and analytical support. -CYBER SECURITY: Tested cyber security vulnerabilities in Smart Grid hardware, network, and application layers. Developed recommendations for policies, procedures, and technical controls to prevent or foil cyber-attacks and to harden the Smart Grid infrastructure. -RELIABILITY: Leveraged new Smart Grid-enabled data to increase system efficiency and reliability. Developed enhanced load forecasting, phase balancing, and voltage control techniques designed to work hand-in-hand with the Smart Grid technologies. -OUTREACH: Implemented public outreach and educational initiatives that were linked directly to the demonstration of Smart Grid technologies, tools, techniques, and system configurations. This included creation of full-scale operating models demonstrating application of Smart Grid technologies in business and residential settings. Farmingdale State College held three international conferences on energy and sustainability and Smart Grid related technologies and policies. These conferences, in addition to public seminars increased understanding and acceptance of Smart Grid transformation by the general public, business, industry, and municipalities in the Long Island and greater New York region. - JOB CREATION: Provided training for the Smart Grid and clean energy jobs of the future at both Farmingdale and Stony Brook. Stony Brook focused its “Cradle to Fortune 500” suite of economic development resources on the opportunities emerging from the project, helping to create new technologies, new businesses, and new jobs. To achieve these features, LIPA and its sub-recipients, FSC and SBU, each have separate but complementary objectives. At LIPA, the Smart Energy Corridor (1) meant validating Smart Grid technologies; (2) quantifying Smart Grid costs and benefits; and (3) providing insights into how Smart Grid applications can be better implemented, readily adapted, and replicated in individual homes and businesses. LIPA installed 2,550 AMI meters (exceeding the 500 AMI meters in the original plan), created three “smart” substations serving the Corridor, and installed additional distribution automation elements including two-way communications and digital controls over various feeders and capacitor banks. It gathered and analyzed customer behavior information on how they responded to a new “smart” TOU rate and to various levels of information and analytical tools.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Retrieval Augmented Generation for Robust Cyber Defense

In cybersecurity, the ability to efficiently analyze and respond to vulnerabilities, weaknesses, attack patterns, and threat tactics is critical for effective defense strategies. With the increasing complexity and volume of cybersecurity data, traditional methods of querying and retrieving information are often inadequate. To address this challenge, we implemented Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems—CyRAG and GraphCyRAG—that integrate large language models (LLMs) with both structured data from relational databases and knowledge graphs such as Neo4j. CyRAG is designed to handle structured data, focusing on CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) and CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) entities to generate accurate and context-rich responses. In contrast, GraphCyRAG leverages Neo4j knowledge graphs to retrieve interconnected information from CVE, CWE, CAPEC (Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification), and ATT&CK (Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge) datasets. By utilizing Neo4j’s graph-based framework, GraphCyRAG enables deeper traversal of relationships between vulnerabilities and attack patterns, providing cybersecurity analysts with more comprehensive insights into potential attack vectors and mitigation strategies. Our preliminary results demonstrate that integrating knowledge graphs with RAG significantly enhances both the accuracy and depth of threat analysis, allowing for the retrieval of dynamic, real-time data and the generation of contextually aware responses. This approach helps analysts uncover hidden relationships between cyber entities, predict exploit paths, and prioritize mitigation efforts effectively. The integration of RAG with cybersecurity knowledge graphs represents a significant advancement in cybersecurity threat intelligence, enabling more informed decision-making and stronger defense strategies.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗