We expect an increase in frequency and severity of cyber-attacks that comes along with the need of efficient security countermeasures. The process of attributing a cyber-attack helps in constructing efficient and targeted mitigative and preventive security measures. In this work, we propose an argumentation-based reasoner (ABR) that helps the analyst during the analysis of forensic evidence and the attribution process. Given the evidence collected from the cyber-attack, our reasoner helps the analyst to identify who performed the attack and suggests the analyst where to focus further analyses by giving hints of the missing evidence, or further investigation paths to follow. ABR is the first automatic reasoner that analyzes and attributes cyber-attacks by using technical and social evidence, as well as incomplete and conflicting information. ABR was tested on realistic cyber-attacks cases.
Attribution of a cyber-attack is the process of determining the identity or location of an attacker or an attackers intermediary'' @cite_28 . Tracing the origin of a cyber-attack is difficult since attackers can easily forge or obscure source information, and use anti-forensics tools, as usually they want to avoid being detected and identified @cite_12 . Digital forensics plays an enormous role in attribution by collecting, examining, analyzing and reporting the evidence @cite_35 . Also other techniques created for protecting the systems are used to collect forensic data, e.g., traceback techniques @cite_28 , honeypots @cite_34 , other deception techniques @cite_4 @cite_22 .
@cite_35 @cite_4 @cite_22 @cite_28 @cite_34 @cite_12
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This publication is intended to help organizations in investigating computer security incidents and troubleshooting some information technology (IT) operational problems by providing practical guidance on performing computer and network forensics. The guide presents forensics from an IT view, not a law enforcement view. Specifically, the publication describes the processes for performing effective forensics activities and provides advice regarding different data sources, including files, operating systems (OS), network traffic, and applications. The publication is not to be used as an all-inclusive step-by-step guide for executing a digital forensic investigation or construed as legal advice. Its purpose is to inform readers of various technologies and potential ways of using them in performing incident response or troubleshooting activities. Readers are advised to apply the recommended practices only after consulting with management and legal counsel for compliance concerning laws and regulations (i.e., local, state, Federal, and international) that pertain to their situation. Deceptive techniques played a prominent role in many human conflicts throughout history. Digital conflicts are no different as the use of deception has found its way to computing since at least the 1980s. However, many computer defenses that use deception were ad-hoc attempts to incorporate deceptive elements. In this paper, we present a model that can be used to plan and integrate deception in computer security defenses. We present an overview of fundamental reasons why deception works and the essential principles involved in using such techniques. We investigate the unique advantages deception-based mechanisms bring to traditional computer security defenses. Furthermore, we show how our model can be used to incorporate deception in many part of computer systems and discuss how we can use such techniques effectively. A successful deception should present plausible alternative(s) to the truth and these should be designed to exploit specific adversaries' biases. We investigate these biases and discuss how can they be used by presenting a number of examples. Our physical and digital worlds are converging at a rapid pace, putting a lot of our valuable information in digital formats. Currently, most computer systems’ predictable responses provide attackers with valuable information on how to infiltrate them. In this chapter, we discuss how the use of deception can play a prominent role in enhancing the security of current computer systems. We show how deceptive techniques have been used in many successful computer breaches. Phishing, social engineering, and drive-by-downloads are some prime examples. We discuss why deception has only been used haphazardly in computer security. Additionally, we discuss some of the unique advantages deception-based security mechanisms bring to computer security. Finally, we present a framework where deception can be planned and integrated into computer defenses. Abstract : This paper summarizes various techniques to perform attribution of computer attackers who are exploiting data networks. Attribution can be defined as determining the identity or location of an attacker or an attacker's intermediary. In the public literature "traceback" or "source tracking" are often used as terms instead of "attribution." This paper is intended for use by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) as it considers if it should improve its attribution capability, and if so, how to do so. However, since the focus of this paper is on technology, it may also be of use to many others such as law enforcement personnel. This is a technical report, and assumes that the reader understands the basics of network technology, especially the Transmission Control Protocol Internet Protocol (TCP IP) suite of protocols. We present Shadow Honeypots, a novel hybrid architecture that combines the best features of honeypots and anomaly detection. At a high level, we use a variety of anomaly detectors to monitor all traffic to a protected network service. Traffic that is considered anomalous is processed by a "shadow honeypot" to determine the accuracy of the anomaly prediction. The shadow is an instance of the protected software that shares all internal state with a regular ("production") instance of the application, and is instrumented to detect potential attacks. Attacks against the shadow are caught, and any incurred state changes are discarded. Legitimate traffic that was misclassified will be validated by the shadow and will be handled correctly by the system transparently to the end user. The outcome of processing a request by the shadow is used to filter future attack instances and could be used to update the anomaly detector. Our architecture allows system designers to fine-tune systems for performance, since false positives will be filtered by the shadow. Contrary to regular honeypots, our architecture can be used both for server and client applications. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach in a proof-of-concept implementation of the Shadow Honeypot architecture for the Apache web server and the Mozilla Firefox browser. We show that despite a considerable overhead in the instrumentation of the shadow honeypot (up to 20 for Apache), the overall impact on the system is diminished by the ability to minimize the rate of false-positives. basic objective for the construction of internet was to provide a common platform to researchers and students to share information among them. It was not constructed to track and trace the behavior of cyber criminals. Due to this reason, it is difficult to locate the origin of cybercrime. The paper defines cybercrime with treat and vulnerability and suggests a number of different techniques which are often used by the cybercriminals to Spoofing the IP. The purpose of this paper is not only to detail about why the attribution of cybercrime is difficult but also to present TTL and step stone logic which are now being heavily used in cybercrime. Keywordsrcrime, Attribution, IP forging.