22 July 2009

Cyber attack awareness goes real time

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories fight off millions of cyber attacks every year, but until now a near real-time dialog between these labs about this hostile activity has never existed.

There is now a program that allows for Cyber Security defense systems to communicate when attacked and transmit that information to cyber systems at other institutions in the hopes of strengthening the overall cyber security posture of the complex, said scientists at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

“The Federated Model for Cyber Security acts as a virtual neighborhood watch program. If one institution is attacked; secure and timely communication to others in the Federation will aide in protecting them from that same attack through active response,” said cyber security officer Michael Skwarek.

Prior to the Federated Model for Cyber Security, the exchange of hostile activity lied solely on the shoulders of the human element. In cyber attacks, every second counts, and the quicker the user can safely share the information, the quicker it will assist in strengthening others against similar attacks. With millions of cyber security probes a day, the human element just will not be successful alone.

“This program addresses the need for the exchange of hostile activity information, with the goal of reducing the time to react across the complex,” Skwarek said. “History has shown hostile activity is often targeted at more than one location, and having our defenses ready and armed will assist greatly.”

Currently, the program is capable of transmitting information regarding hostile IP addresses and domain names, and will soon be able to share hostile e-mail address and web URLs to others in the Federation.

For related information, go to www.isa.org/networks.