Towards security metrics-supported IP traceback

Abstract

The threat of DDOS and other cyberattacks has increased during the last decade. In addition to the radical increase in the number of attacks, they are also becoming more sophisticated with the targets ranging from ordinary users to service providers and even critical infrastructure. According to some resources, the sophistication of attacks is increasing faster than the mitigating actions against them. For example determining the location of the attack origin is becoming impossible as cyber attackers employ specific means to evade detection of the attack origin by default, such as using proxy services and source address spoofing. The purpose of this paper is to initiate discussion about effective Internet Protocol traceback mechanisms that are needed to overcome this problem. We propose an approach for traceback that is based on extensive use of security metrics before (proactive) and during (reactive) the attacks.