Understanding threats: a prerequisite to enhance survivability of computing systems

Abstract

This paper shows the usefulness of using simple honeypots to obtain data for a better understanding of some internet attack processes. The acquired knowledge can then be used to drive sound security design decisions in order to improve the ability of our systems to resist to attacks. Based on three years of collected data, we provide in this paper a critical review of geographical information provided by NetGeo, a study of the aftermath of the Deloder worm and a refined analysis of the interaction between machines devoted to scan and to attack.