Cyber security adaptive analytics threat monitoring system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016014147-A1
Application number	US-201514860454-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 21, 2015
Priority date	Jan 7, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system and method of detecting command and control behavior of malware on a client computer is disclosed. One or more DNS messages are monitored from one or more client computers to a DNS server to determine a risk that one or more client computers is communicating with a botnet. Real-time entity profiles are generated for at least one of each of the one or more client computers, DNS domain query names, resolved IP addresses of query domain names, client computer-query domain name pairs, pairs of query domain name and corresponding resolved IP address, or query domain name-IP address cliques based on each of the one or more DNS messages. Using the real-time entity profiles, a risk that any of the one or more client computers is infected by malware that utilizes DNS messages for command and control or illegitimate data transmission purposes is determined. One or more scores are generated representing probabilities that one or more client computers is infected by malware.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of detecting a cyber security threat risk in a computer network, the method comprising:
monitoring one or more network messages or events associated with one or more client computers that electronically communicate with at least one server, each of the one or more client computers and the at least one server having an IP address; generating a real-time entity profile for at least one of the one or more client computers, the real-time entity profile comprising one or more variables associated with electronic communication between the one or more client computers and the at least one server, the one or more variables including at least IP addresses associated with the monitored one or more network messages or events; determining a variance from the real-time entity profile containing one or more cyber threat features for each of the at least one or more client computers, the variance representing cyber security threat risk that the security of any of the one or more client computers is compromised and the client computer network message or event traffic represents illegitimate data transmission; generating a real time calibration profile for the at least one of the one or more client computers based on the real time entity profile variable values and the determined variance; and generating, using the real-time calibration profiles and the real time entity profile and associated one or more variables, one or more scores, each of the one or more scores representing a probability of the cyber-security threat risk.

2 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the real-time entity profile further comprises DNS domain query names, resolved IP addresses of query domain names, client computer-query domain name pairs, pairs of query domain name and corresponding resolved IP address, or query domain name-IP address cliques based on each of the one or more messages.

3 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the real-time entity profile further comprises network flow directed to server IPs, identification of the transport layer features including IP, UDP, and TCP data flows, fluxing of the domain name to associated server IP, client-server IP pairs and associated typical event time, data size, and port numbers, favorite server IP and domain names for associated network flows, or network flow port activity associated with the client and server IP.

4 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the real-time entity profile further comprises application layer protocols associated with the one or more network messages or events.

5 . The method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising aggregating the monitoring from two or more monitoring systems to generate aggregated entity profiles.

6 . The method in accordance with claim 5 , further comprising generating aggregated scores based on the aggregated entity profiles.

7 . A computer program product comprising a machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one programmable processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:
monitoring, by the at least one programmable processor, one or more network messages or events associated with one or more client computers that electronically communicate with at least one server, each of the one or more client computers and the at least one server having an IP address; generating, by the at least one programmable processor, a real-time entity profile for at least one of the one or more client computers, the real-time entity profile comprising one or more variables associated with electronic communication between the one or more client computers and the at least one server, the one or more variables including at least IP addresses associated with the monitored one or more network messages or events; determining, by the at least one programmable processor, a variance from the real-time entity profile containing one or more cyber threat features for each of the at least one or more client computers, the variance representing cyber security threat risk that the security of any of the one or more client computers is compromised and the client computer network message or event traffic represents illegitimate data transmission; generating, by the at least one programmable processor, a real time calibration profile for the at least one of the one or more client computers based on the real time entity profile variable values and the determined variance; and generating, by the at least one programmable processor using the real-time calibration profiles and the real time entity profile and associated one or more variables, one or more scores, each of the one or more scores representing a probability of the cyber-security threat risk.

8 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the real-time entity profile further comprises DNS domain query names, resolved IP addresses of query domain names, client computer-query domain name pairs, pairs of query domain name and corresponding resolved IP address, or query domain name-IP address cliques based on each of the one or more messages.

9 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the real-time entity profile further comprises network flow directed to server IPs, identification of the transport layer features including IP, UDP, and TCP data flows, fluxing of the domain name to associated server IP, client-server IP pairs and associated typical event time, data size, and port numbers, favorite server IP and domain names for associated network flows, or network flow port activity associated with the client and server IP.

10 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the real-time entity profile further comprises application layer protocols associated with the one or more network messages or events.

11 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 7 , further comprising aggregating the monitoring from two or more monitoring systems to generate aggregated entity profiles.

12 . The computer program product in accordance with claim 11 , further comprising generating aggregated scores based on the aggregated entity profiles.

13 . A system comprising:
at least one programmable processor; and a machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:
monitor one or more network messages or events associated with one or more client computers that electronically communicate with at least one server, each of the one or more client computers and the at least one server having an IP address;
generate a real-time entity profile for at least one of the one or more client computers, the real-time entity profile comprising one or more variables associated with electronic communication between the one or more client computers and the at least one server, the one or more variables including at least IP addresses associated with the monitored one or more network messages or events;
determine a variance from the real-time entity profile containing one or more cyber threat features for each of the at least one or more client computers, the variance representing cyber security threat risk that the security of any of the one or more client computers is compromised and the client computer network message or event traffic represents illegitimate data transmission;
generate a real time calibration profile for the at least one of the one or more client computers based on the real time entity profile variable values and the determined

Assignees

• Fair Isaac Corp

Inventors

• Zoldi Scott Michael
• Athwal Jehangir
• Li Hua
• Kennel Matthew Bochner
• Xue Xinwai

Classifications

• H04L63/1433

  Vulnerability analysis · CPC title

• H04L63/1416 Primary

  Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection · CPC title

• H04L63/1425

  Traffic logging, e.g. anomaly detection · CPC title

• H04L63/1441

  Countermeasures against malicious traffic (countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002) · CPC title

• H04L63/1408

  by monitoring network traffic (monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00) · CPC title