Biblio

Machine Learning has revolutionized many fields of computer science. Reinforcement Learning (RL), in particular, stands out as a solution to sequential decision making problems. With the growing complexity of computer networks in the face of new emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things and the growing complexity of threat vectors, there is a dire need for autonomous network systems. RL is a viable solution for achieving this autonomy. Software-defined Networking (SDN) provides a global network view and programmability of network behaviour, which can be employed for security management. Previous works in RL-based threat mitigation have mostly focused on very specific problems, mostly non-sequential, with ad-hoc solutions. In this paper, we propose ATMoS, a general framework designed to facilitate the rapid design of RL applications for network security management using SDN. We evaluate our framework for implementing RL applications for threat mitigation, by showcasing the use of ATMoS with a Neural Fitted Q-learning agent to mitigate an Advanced Persistent Threat. We present the RL model's convergence results showing the feasibility of our solution for active threat mitigation.

In many decades, due to fast growth of the World Wide Web, HTTP automated software/applications (auto-ware) are blooming for multiple purposes. Unfortunately, beside normal applications such as virus defining or operating system updating, auto-ware can also act as abnormal processes such as botnet, worms, virus, spywares, and advertising software (adware). Therefore, auto-ware, in a sense, consumes network bandwidth, and it might become internal security threats, auto-ware accessed domain/server also might be malicious one. Understanding about behaviour of HTTP auto-ware is beneficial for anomaly/malicious detection, the network management, traffic engineering and security. In this paper, HTTP auto-ware communication behaviour is analysed and modeled, from which a method in filtering out its domain/server is proposed. The filtered results can be used as a good resource for other security action purposes such as malicious domain/URL detection/filtering or investigation of HTTP malware from internal threats.