Scaling and Visualizing Network Data to Facilitate in Intrusion Detection Tasks

To my family and in the memory of my father, iii Now the words are over and the pain they bring is gone. Now you have gone to rest in the arms of the Beloved.-Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Without the help and blessings of Allah (swt), the completion of this dissertation and overcoming all the obstacles I have encountered along the way would not have been possible. It would also have not been possible without the help of friends, colleagues and those involved in my educational pursuits. First, I want to thank my advisor, Dr. John A. Copeland, for patience, help and concern during my PhD career. He allowed me to have freedom and flexibility in my research choices and helped me every step of the way. Though the time it took me to finish was long, he remained consistently supportive regardless. He is truly one of a kind in character. From him, I learned how to approach research problems and make solutions apply to the real world as well. Thank you for serving on my dissertation committee, giving me feedback and approval of my research goals to help me have a good thesis. I would particularly like to give a special thanks to Dr. Owen for providing feedback and support throughout my time at Georgia Tech and to Dr. John Stasko for providing encouragement and support for the information visualization aspects of IDS Rainstorm. and the rest of the Internet Security staff for testing IDS Rainstorm and providing feedback. The years in the Computer Systems Communication (CSC) lab were full of interesting times and discussions which kept me entertained. Thanks to the present and past members of this group for your friendship. Thanks to Dr. Raheem Beyah at Georgia State, an alumni v of CSC. Not only was he a colleague but he also advised us on our research. For helping me stay together and wade through the administrative sea of bureaucracy, thanks goes to Kathy Cheek. Regards to Brian Strickland for being patient in helping us setup the network in the lab and answering all my questions. I am grateful to Greg Conti for collaborating with me in network security visualization, also providing a lot of feedback and support. Finally, without the support of my family and friends, I could not have completed this thesis. My parents, Syed and Ghazala Abdullah provided me with emotional …