A framework for scoring and tagging NetFlow data

With the increase in link speeds and the growth of the Internet, the volume of NetFlow data generated has increased significantly over time and processing these volumes has become a challenge, more specifically a Big Data challenge. With the advent of technologies and architectures designed to handle Big Data volumes, researchers have investigated their application to the processing of NetFlow data. This work builds on prior work wherein a scoring methodology was proposed for identifying anomalies in NetFlow by proposing and implementing a system that allows for automatic, real-time scoring through the adoption of Big Data stream processing architectures. The first part of the research looks at the means of event detection using the scoring approach and implementing as a number of individual, standalone components, each responsible for detecting and scoring a single type of flow trait. The second part is the implementation of these scoring components in a framework, named Themis1, capable of handling high volumes of data with low latency processing times. This was tackled using tools, technologies and architectural elements from the world of Big Data stream processing. The performance of the framework on the stream processing architecture was shown to demonstrate good flow throughput at low processing latencies on a single low end host. The successful demonstration of the framework on a single host opens the way to leverage the scaling capabilities afforded by the architectures and technologies used. This gives weight to the possibility of using this framework for real time threat detection using NetFlow data from larger networked environments