Sweetening the online experience
The Internet can be an undisputed source of knowledge and learning. Its use as a dependable tool, however, is being compromised by an increase in viruses, Trojans and cyber attacks. Damage can happen within minutes and can be very difficult to contain or reverse once it takes place. The EU-sponsored project 'European Network of Affined Honeypots' (NOAH) has developed a security-monitoring system that can thwart malicious online attacks using a technology called honeypot. The technology is characterised by computer systems that are conceived to be purposely vulnerable in order to attract and analyse attacks. By monitoring such data from different honeypots around the globe, NOAH can pre-empt viruses, Trojans and other malicious attacks or software before they do major damage. The project is based on automatic processing, correlation of attack signatures and key data used in other security systems to contain attacks. It can then offer security analysis infrastructure for different stakeholders, such as national research and education networks (NRENs), Internet service providers (ISPs) and security organisations. NOAH has studied how to implement a pilot infrastructure and demonstrate its viability. The resulting information can be used by researchers and security analysts working in the information technology (IT) field to strengthen security in all kinds of organisations and in unprecedented ways. the project has already succeeded in designing a powerful, cost-effective security research infrastructure that conducts security experiments and obtains security-related data feeds. Most importantly, it has proved the feasibility of such a security initiative, one that can add much needed support to the scientific community in Europe and beyond. Lessons learned from the project and work beyond the project's official end date are helping to ensure continuity of results that have the potential to limit cyber attacks to a great extent.
