Behavioral Profiling of Scada Network Traffic Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Abstract

Mixed traffic networks containing both traditional ICT network traffic and SCADA network traffic are more commonplace now due to the desire for remote control and monitoring of industrial processes. The ability to identify SCADA devices on a mixed traffic network with zero prior knowledge, such as port, protocol or IP address, is desirable since SCADA devices are communicating over corporate networks but typically use non-standard ports and proprietary protocols. Four supervised ML algorithms are tested on a mixed traffic dataset containing 116,527 dataflows from both SCADA and traditional ICT networks: Naive Bayes, NBTree, BayesNet, and J4.8. Using packet timing, packet size and data throughput as traffic behavior categories, this research calculates 24 attributes from each device dataflow. All four algorithms are tested with three attribute subsets: a full set and two reduced attribute subsets. The attributes and ML algorithms chosen for experimentation successfully demonstrate that a TPR of .9935 for SCADA network traffic is feasible on a given network. It also successfully identifies an optimal attribute subset, while maintaining at least a .99 TPR. The optimal attribute subset provides the SCADA network traffic behaviors that most effectively differentiating them from traditional ICT network traffic.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 27, 2014
Accession Number
ADA610906

Entities

People

  • Jessica R. Werling

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Application Protocols
  • Bayesian Networks
  • Computer Networks
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Cyberattacks
  • Data Mining
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Electronic Mail
  • Information Science
  • Intrusion Detectors
  • Machine Learning
  • Network Protocols
  • Supervised Machine Learning
  • Transport Protocols
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computer Networking
  • Cybersecurity.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Neural Networks