Songs of cyberspace: an update on sonifications of network traffic to support situational awareness

Abstract

Building on our previous work, we extend sonification techniques to common network security data. In this current work, we examine packet flow and the creation of socket connections between a requestor's IP address and port number with the server's IP address and port number. Our goals for the aural rendering are twofold: to make certain conditions immediately apparent to untrained listeners, and to create a sound model capable of enough nuance that there is the possibility of unexpected patterns becoming apparent to a seasoned listener. This system could be used to potentially provide better cognitive refinement capabilities for data fusion systems, especially when multiple sources of data at various levels of refinement are presented to the human analyst.