2011 Reports

Data Collection and Analysis for Masquerade Attack Detection: Challenges and Lessons Learned

Ben Salem, Malek; Stolfo, Salvatore

Real-world large-scale data collection poses an important challenge in the security field. Insider and masquerader attack data collection poses even a greater challenge. Very few organizations acknowledge such breaches because of liability concerns and potential implications on their market value. This caused the scarcity of real-world data sets that could be used to study insider and masquerader attacks. In this paper, we present the design, technical, and procedural challenges encountered during our own masquerade data gathering project. We also share some lessons learned from this several-year project related to the Institutional Review Board process and to user study design.