A survey of coordinated attacks and collaborative intrusion detection

Coordinated attacks, such as large-scale stealthy scans, worm outbreaks and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, occur in multiple networks simultaneously. Such attacks are extremely difficult to detect using isolated intrusion detection systems (IDSs) that monitor only a limited portion of the Internet. In this paper, we summarize the current research directions in detecting such attacks using collaborative intrusion detection systems (CIDSs). In particular, we highlight two main challenges in CIDS research: CIDS architectures and alert correlation algorithms. We review the current CIDS approaches in terms of these two challenges. We conclude by highlighting opportunities for an integrated solution to large-scale collaborative intrusion detection. Crown Copyright a 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.