Network intrusion data item clustering and analysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9998485-B2
Application number	US-201414487021-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 15, 2014
Priority date	Jul 3, 2014
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a data analysis system that may automatically generate memory-efficient clustered data structures, automatically analyze those clustered data structures, and provide results of the automated analysis in an optimized way to an analyst. The automated analysis of the clustered data structures (also referred to herein as data clusters) may include an automated application of various criteria or rules so as to generate a compact, human-readable analysis of the data clusters. The human-readable analyses (also referred to herein as “summaries” or “conclusions”) of the data clusters may be organized into an interactive user interface so as to enable an analyst to quickly navigate among information associated with various data clusters and efficiently evaluate those data clusters in the context of, for example, a fraud investigation. Embodiments of the present disclosure also relate to automated scoring of the clustered data structures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer system comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer readable storage devices configured to store:
a plurality of computer executable instructions;
a data clustering strategy; and
a plurality of data items including at least:
intrusion detection system reports, each intrusion detection system report associated with at least a source Internet Protocol address and a destination Internet Protocol address; and
network-related data items associated with captured communications between an internal network and an external network, the network-related data items including at least one of: external Internet Protocol addresses, external domains, external computerized devices, internal Internet Protocol addresses, internal computerized devices, users of particular computerized devices, intrusion detection system information, network firewall data, or WHOIS information; and

one or more hardware computer processors in communication with the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage devices and configured to execute the plurality of computer executable instructions to cause the computer system to:
receive an intrusion detection system report including a communication between a source Internet Protocol address and a destination Internet Protocol address;
initiate an automated lookup to determine which of the source Internet Protocol address and the destination Internet Protocol address is an external Internet Protocol address, the external Internet Protocol address being external to the internal network;
designate the external Internet Protocol address as a seed;
generate a first data item cluster based on the data clustering strategy by at least:
adding the seed to the first data item cluster;
identifying one or more of the network-related data items associated with the seed; and
adding, to the first data item cluster, the one or more identified network-related data items;

determine to regenerate the first data item cluster;
regenerate the first data item cluster by at least:
identifying one or more new network-related data items associated with at least one of: the seed, or the one or more identified network-related data items, wherein the one or more new network-related data items were not added to the first data item cluster as initially generated; and
adding, to the first data item cluster, the one or more new network-related data items;

access a plurality data item clusters including the first data item cluster, wherein the plurality of data item clusters include data items associated with malicious network activities;
analyze the plurality of data item clusters;
determine criticalities of the malicious network activity represented by the data item clusters; and
provide a dynamic user interface displaying at least a first visualization including alerts for at least one of the plurality of data item clusters, wherein the alerts visually indicate the criticalities of the malicious network activity represented by the data item clusters.

2. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein generating the first data item cluster based on the data clustering strategy further comprises:
identifying additional one or more data items associated with any data items of the first data item cluster; and
adding, to the first data item cluster, the additional one or more data items.

3. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the first data item cluster includes at least the source Internet Protocol address, the destination Internet Protocol address, an internal computerized device associated with an Internet Protocol address in the cluster, a user of the internal computerized device, and WHOIS information associated with the external Internet Protocol address.

4. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more hardware computer processors are further configured to execute the plurality of computer executable instructions to cause the computer system to:
receive a second intrusion detection system report including a communication between a second source Internet Protocol address and a second destination Internet Protocol address;
initiate an automated lookup to determine which of the second source Internet Protocol address and the second destination Internet Protocol address is a second external Internet Protocol address, the second external Internet Protocol address being external to the internal network;
compare the external Internet Protocol address to the second external Internet Protocol address;
in response to determining, based on the comparison, that the external Internet Protocol address and the second external Internet Protocol address are the same, add the second external Internet Protocol address to the first data item cluster; and
in response to determining, based on the comparison, that the external Internet Protocol address and the second external Internet Protocol address are not the same:
designate the second external Internet Protocol address as a second seed; and
generate a second data item cluster based on the data clustering strategy and the second seed.

5. The computer system of claim 4 , wherein the second external Internet Protocol address is added to the first data item cluster only if the intrusion detection system report and the second intrusion detection system report are received on a same day.

6. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more hardware computer processors are further configured to execute the plurality of computer executable instructions to cause the computer system to:
scan communications between the internal network and the external network so as to generate additional network-related data items; and
store the additional network-related data items in the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage devices.

7. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein received intrusion detection system reports are automatically stored in the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage devices, and the one or more hardware computer processors are further configured to execute the plurality of computer executable instructions to cause the computer system to:
identify newly received intrusion detection system reports;
initiate automated lookups to determine external Internet Protocol addresses associated with each of the newly received intrusion detection system reports;
designate the determined external Internet Protocol addresses as seeds; and
generate data item clusters based on the data clustering strategy and the seeds.

8. The computer system of claim 7 , wherein data item clusters generated based on common external Internet Protocol addresses are merged.

9. The computer system of claim 8 , wherein data item clusters generated based on common external Internet Protocol addresses are merged only if the associated intrusion detection system reports are received on a same day.

10. The computer system of claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage devices are further configured to store:
a plurality of data cluster analysis rules associated with the data clustering strategy, and

the one or more hardware computer processors are further configured to execute the plurality of computer executable instructions to cause the computer system to:
for the first data item cluster:
access the plurality of data cluster analysis rules associated with the data clustering strategy;
analyze the first data item cluster based on the accessed data cluster analysis rules; and
based on the analysis of the first data item cluster:

determine an alert score for the first data item cluster; and
generate one or more human-readable conclusions regarding the first dat

Assignees

• Palantir Technologies Inc
• Palantir Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Cohen David
• Ma Jason
• Fu Bing Jie
• Nepomnyashchiy Ilya
• Berler Steven
• Smaliy Alex
• Grossman Jack
• Thompson James
• Boortz Julia
• Sprague Matthew
• Menon Parvathy
• Kross Michael
• Harris Michael
• Borochoff Adam

Classifications

• G06F17/30598

  Physics · mapped topic

• H04L63/1425 Primary

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

• G06Q40/12 Primary

  Accounting · CPC title

• H04L63/1408

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

• H04L63/145

  the attack involving the propagation of malware through the network, e.g. viruses, trojans or worms · CPC title