Automatic Cyberattack Detection and Eradication System using Intelligent Network Traffic Analysis

Abstract

The fast-growing interconnectivity of networks and digital communication platforms, along with extensive information exchange, has made cybersecurity issues in modern computing environments more severe. The expansion of networking infrastructures always results in a massive flow of traffic, thus rendering traditional monitoring techniques and security tools ineffective. Modern cybersecurity systems often have problems detecting the changing nature of cyber threats since some of these have behaviors different from those associated with cyber attack signatures. This not only limits their effectiveness but also causes high rates of false alerts and late responses to complex threats like phishing, ransomware communications, distributed denial of service attacks, key logging activities, bot attacks, and packet sniffing. These all highlight the need for smart cybersecurity solutions that can analyze network activities effectively and detect any kind of threats. The designed model comprises two major layers, which are referred to as the data collection layer and the analysis layer. Network traffic details and system logs are collected using simulated or live data from either simulated or live environment and transformed into structured datasets to undergo the subsequent process steps. Preprocessing involves the removal of unnecessary data instances, cleansing of noise, and feature extraction to enable successful attack detection. This framework uses a combination of signature-based detection and anomaly detection methods to detect attacks through analysis of patterns that are consistent with an attack and patterns that are abnormal in terms of network behavior. This allows better detection of both current and new types of attacks. If a suspicious activity is observed in the network, then the design generates security alerts, stores the incident logs, and automatically responds by blocking the suspicious IP address.