Visualizing Network Traffic for Intrusion Detection

Intrusion detection, the process of using network data to identify potential attacks, has become an essential component of information security. Human analysts doing intrusion detection work utilize vast amounts of data from disparate sources to make decisions about potential attacks. Yet, there is limited understanding of this critical human component. This research seeks to understand the work practices of these human analysts to inform the design of a task-appropriate information visualization tool to support network intrusion detection analysis tasks. System design will follow a usercentered, spiral methodology. System evaluation will include both a field-based qualitative evaluation, uncommon in information visualization, and a lab-based benchmarking evaluation. Author Keywords Information visualization, HCI, intrusion detection, network security. ACM Classification Keyword