Hackers Topology Matter Geography Mapping the Dynamics of Repeated System Trespassing Events Networks

By: Amit Rechavi, David Maimon and Tamar Berenblum

This study focuses on the spatial context of hacking to networks of Honey-pots. We investigate the relationship between topological positions and geographic positions of victimized computers and system trespassers.

We've deployed research Honeypots on the computer networks of two academic institutions, collected information on successful brute force attacks (BFA) and system trespassing events (sessions), and used Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques, to depict and understand the correlation between spatial attributes (IP addresses) and hacking networks’ topology.

Mapping hacking patterns we found that geography might set the behavior of the attackers as well as the topology of hacking networks.

Looking ahead, our study can assist policymakers in forming effective policies in the field of cybercrime.

Full paper: Rechavi, A., Berenblum, T., Maimon, D., & Sevilla, I. S. (2015, August). Hackers topology matter geography: Mapping the dynamics of repeated system trespassing events networks. In Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), 2015 IEEE/ACM International Conference on (pp. 795-804). IEEE.‏