Server Sounds and Network Noises

Abstract-For server and network administrators, it is a challenge to keep an overview of their systems to detect potential intrusions and security risks in real-time as well as in retrospect. Most security tools leverage our inherent ability for pattern detection by visualizing different types of security data. Several studies suggest that complementing visualization with sonification (the presentation of data using sound) can alleviate some of the challenges of visual monitoring (such as the need for constant visual focus). This paper therefore provides an overview of the current state of research regarding auditory-based and multimodal tools in computer security. Most existing research in this area is geared towards supporting users in real-time network and server monitoring, while there are only few approaches that are designed for retrospective data analysis. There exist several sonification-based tools in a mature state, but their effectiveness has hardly been tested in formal user and usability studies. Such studies are however needed to provide a solid basis for deciding which type of sonification is most suitable for which kind of scenarios and how to best combine the two modalities, visualization and sonification, to support users in their daily routines

Toward Sound-Assisted Intrusion Detection Systems

Abstract. Network intrusion detection has been generally dealt with using sophisticated software and statistical analysis, although sometimes it has to be done by administrators, either by detecting the intruders in real time or by revising network logs, making this a tedious and timeconsuming task. To support this, intrusion detection analysis has been carried out using visual, auditory or tactile sensory information in computer interfaces. However, little is known about how to best integrate the sensory channels for analyzing intrusion detection alarms. In the past, we proposed a set of ideas outlining the benefits of enhancing intrusion detection alarms with multimodal interfaces. In this paper, we present a simplified sound-assisted attack mitigation system enhanced with auditory channels. Results indicate that the resulting intrusion detection system effectively generates distinctive sounds upon a series of simple attack scenarios consisting of denial-of-service and port scanning