A Brief Review of Security in Emerging Programmable Computer Networking Technologies

Recent programmable networking paradigms, such as cloud computing, fog computing, software- defined networks, and network function virtualization gain significant traction in industry and academia. While these newly developed networking technologies open a pathway to new architectures and enable a faster innovation cycle, there exist many problems in this area. In this article, we provide a review of these programmable networking architectures for comparison. Second, we provide a survey of security attacks and defense mechanisms in these emerging programmable networking technologies

Can open-source projects (re-) shape the SDN/NFV-driven telecommunication market?

Telecom network operators face rapidly changing business needs. Due to their dependence on long product cycles they lack the ability to quickly respond to changing user demands. To spur innovation and stay competitive, network operators are investigating technological solutions with a proven track record in other application domains such as open source software projects. Open source software enables parties to learn, use, or contribute to technology from which they were previously excluded. OSS has reshaped many application areas including the landscape of operating systems and consumer software. The paradigmshift in telecommunication systems towards Software-Defined Networking introduces possibilities to benefit from open source projects. Implementing the control part of networks in software enables speedier adaption and innovation, and less dependencies on legacy protocols or algorithms hard-coded in the control part of network devices. The recently proposed concept of Network Function Virtualization pushes the softwarization of telecommunication functionalities even further down to the data plane. Within the NFV paradigm, functionality which was previously reserved for dedicated hardware implementations can now be implemented in software and deployed on generic Commercial Off-The Shelf (COTS) hardware. This paper provides an overview of existing open source initiatives for SDN/NFV-based network architectures, involving infrastructure to orchestration-related functionality. It situates them in a business process context and identifies the pros and cons for the market in general, as well as for individual actors

Automation for network security configuration: state of the art and research trends

The size and complexity of modern computer networks are progressively increasing, as a consequence of novel architectural paradigms such as the Internet of Things and network virtualization. Consequently, a manual orchestration and configuration of network security functions is no more feasible, in an environment where cyber attacks can dramatically exploit breaches related to any minimum configuration error. A new frontier is then the introduction of automation in network security configuration, i.e., automatically designing the architecture of security services and the configurations of network security functions, such as firewalls, VPN gateways, etc. This opportunity has been enabled by modern computer networks technologies, such as virtualization. In view of these considerations, the motivations for the introduction of automation in network security configuration are first introduced, alongside with the key automation enablers. Then, the current state of the art in this context is surveyed, focusing on both the achieved improvements and the current limitations. Finally, possible future trends in the field are illustrated

A Survey on Security and Privacy of 5G Technologies: Potential Solutions, Recent Advancements, and Future Directions

Security has become the primary concern in many telecommunications industries today as risks can have high consequences. Especially, as the core and enable technologies will be associated with 5G network, the confidential information will move at all layers in future wireless systems. Several incidents revealed that the hazard encountered by an infected wireless network, not only affects the security and privacy concerns, but also impedes the complex dynamics of the communications ecosystem. Consequently, the complexity and strength of security attacks have increased in the recent past making the detection or prevention of sabotage a global challenge. From the security and privacy perspectives, this paper presents a comprehensive detail on the core and enabling technologies, which are used to build the 5G security model; network softwarization security, PHY (Physical) layer security and 5G privacy concerns, among others. Additionally, the paper includes discussion on security monitoring and management of 5G networks. This paper also evaluates the related security measures and standards of core 5G technologies by resorting to different standardization bodies and provide a brief overview of 5G standardization security forces. Furthermore, the key projects of international significance, in line with the security concerns of 5G and beyond are also presented. Finally, a future directions and open challenges section has included to encourage future research.European CommissionNational Research Tomsk Polytechnic UniversityUpdate citation details during checkdate report - A

IntelliFlow : um enfoque proativo para adicionar inteligência de ameaças cibernéticas a redes definidas por software

Orientador: Christian Rodolfo Esteve RothenbergDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de ComputaçãoResumo: Segurança tem sido uma das principais preocupações enfrentadas pela computação em rede principalmente, com o aumento das ameaças à medida que a Internet comercial e economias afins crescem rapidamente. Tecnologias de virtualização que permitem serviços em nuvem em escala colocam novos desafios para a segurança das infraestruturas computacionais, exigindo novos mecanismos que combinem o best-of-breed para reagir contra as metodologias de ataque emergentes. Nosso trabalho busca explorar os avanços na Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) no contexto da arquitetura de redes definidas por software, ou em inglês, Software Defined Networking (SDN). Enquanto a CTI representa uma abordagem recente para o combate de ameaças baseada em fontes confiáveis, a partir do compartihamento de informação e conhecimento sobre atividades criminais virtuais, a SDN é uma tendência recente na arquitetura de redes computacionais baseada em princípios de modulação e programabilidade. Nesta dissertação, nós propomos IntelliFlow, um sistema de detecção de inteligência para SDN que segue a abordagem proativa usando OpenFlow para efetivar contramedidas para as ameaças aprendidas a partir de um plano de inteligência distribuida. Nós mostramos a partir de uma implementação de prova de conceito que o sistema proposto é capaz de trazer uma série de benefícios em termos de efetividade e eficiência, contribuindo no plano geral para a segurança de projetos de computação de rede modernosAbstract: Security is a major concern in computer networking which faces increasing threats as the commercial Internet and related economies continue to grow. Virtualization technologies enabling scalable Cloud services pose further challenges to the security of computer infrastructures, demanding novel mechanisms combining the best-of-breed to counter certain types of attacks. Our work aims to explore advances in Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) in the context of Software Defined Networking (SDN) architectures. While CTI represents a recent approach to combat threats based on reliable sources, by sharing information and knowledge about computer criminal activities, SDN is a recent trend in architecting computer networks based on modularization and programmability principles. In this dissertation, we propose IntelliFlow, an intelligent detection system for SDN that follows a proactive approach using OpenFlow to deploy countermeasures to the threats learned through a distributed intelligent plane. We show through a proof of concept implementation that the proposed system is capable of delivering a number of benefits in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, altogether contributing to the security of modern computer network designsMestradoEngenharia de ComputaçãoMestre em Engenharia Elétrica159905/2013-3CNP

Security analysis of mobile edge computing in virtualized small cell networks

Based upon the context of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) actual research and within the innovative scope of the SESAME EU-funded research project, we propose and assess a framework for security analysis applied in virtualised Small Cell Networks, with the aim of further extending MEC in the broader 5G environment. More specifically, by applying the fundamental concepts of the SESAME original architecture that aims at providing enhanced multi-tenant MEC services through Small Cells coordination and virtualization, we focus on a realistic 5G-oriented scenario enabling the provision of large multi-tenant enterprise services by using MEC. Then we evaluate several security issues by using a formal methodology, known as the Secure Tropos

Graph-based feature enrichment for online intrusion detection in virtual networks

The increasing number of connected devices to provide the required ubiquitousness of Internet of Things paves the way for distributed network attacks at an unprecedented scale. Graph theory, strengthened by machine learning techniques, improves an automatic discovery of group behavior patterns of network threats often omitted by traditional security systems. Furthermore, Network Function Virtualization is an emergent technology that accelerates the provisioning of on-demand security function chains tailored to an application. Therefore, repeatable compliance tests and performance comparison of such function chains are mandatory. The contributions of this dissertation are divided in two parts. First, we propose an intrusion detection system for online threat detection enriched by a graph-learning analysis. We develop a feature enrichment algorithm that infers metrics from a graph analysis. By using different machine learning techniques, we evaluated our algorithm for three network traffic datasets. We show that the proposed graph-based enrichment improves the threat detection accuracy up to 15.7% and significantly reduces the false positives rate. Second, we aim to evaluate intrusion detection systems deployed as virtual network functions. Therefore, we propose and develop SFCPerf, a framework for an automatic performance evaluation of service function chaining. To demonstrate SFCPerf functionality, we design and implement a prototype of a security service function chain, composed of our intrusion detection system and a firewall. We show the results of a SFCPerf experiment that evaluates the chain prototype on top of the open platform for network function virtualization (OPNFV).O crescente número de dispositivos IoT conectados contribui para a ocorrência de ataques distribuídos de negação de serviço a uma escala sem precedentes. A Teoria de Grafos, reforçada por técnicas de aprendizado de máquina, melhora a descoberta automática de padrões de comportamento de grupos de ameaças de rede, muitas vezes omitidas pelos sistemas tradicionais de segurança. Nesse sentido, a virtualização da função de rede é uma tecnologia emergente que pode acelerar o provisionamento de cadeias de funções de segurança sob demanda para uma aplicação. Portanto, a repetição de testes de conformidade e a comparação de desempenho de tais cadeias de funções são obrigatórios. As contribuições desta dissertação são separadas em duas partes. Primeiro, é proposto um sistema de detecção de intrusão que utiliza um enriquecimento baseado em grafos para aprimorar a detecção de ameaças online. Um algoritmo de enriquecimento de características é desenvolvido e avaliado através de diferentes técnicas de aprendizado de máquina. Os resultados mostram que o enriquecimento baseado em grafos melhora a acurácia da detecção de ameaças até 15,7 % e reduz significativamente o número de falsos positivos. Em seguida, para avaliar sistemas de detecção de intrusões implantados como funções virtuais de rede, este trabalho propõe e desenvolve o SFCPerf, um framework para avaliação automática de desempenho do encadeamento de funções de rede. Para demonstrar a funcionalidade do SFCPerf, ´e implementado e avaliado um protótipo de uma cadeia de funções de rede de segurança, composta por um sistema de detecção de intrusão (IDS) e um firewall sobre a plataforma aberta para virtualização de função de rede (OPNFV)