High Performance Networks High-Speed Network Security Systems

Network-based intrusion detection and prevention (IDP) systems are widely deployed across commercial, governmental, and educational sites, as well as at DOE facilities. These IDP systems provide effective site-wide security by detecting and eliminating malicious network traffic before it reaches vulnerable host systems. Unfortunately, network-based IDP systems are vulnerable to evasion techniques, because they cannot always reliably predict how the destination system will process the traffic it will receive. This project aims to eliminate the class of evasion techniques that exploit the differences in network data processing between the network-based IDP systems and destination hosts. This objective will be achieved by introducing a communications channel between the hosts and the network IDP system that enables these systems to verify that they have processed incoming data consistently. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: The technology should be applicable anywhere an organization attempts to maintain a secure internal network using network IDP systems. Increasing network security would reduce business and government costs for recovering from network intrusions, and would provide higher security for the private data held by these institutions.