Keynote 2: Traceback of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks

Presenter: Professor Wanlei Zhou, Deakin University, Australia

Abstract

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks typically exhaust bandwidth, processing capacity, or memory of a targeted machine, service or network. Despite enormous efforts in combating DDoS attacks in the past decade, DDoS attacks are still a serious threat to the security of cyberspace. In this talk I shall outline the recent efforts of my research group in traceback of DDoS attacks. In particular, this talk will concentrate on the following three critical issues related to DDoS attacks: (1) Traceback of DDoS attacks through flexible packet marking; (2) Traceback of DDoS attacks using Entropy Variations; and (3) Dealing with low-rate DDoS attacks and flash crowds. The talk will be based on the following papers:

1. Yang Xiang, Wanlei Zhou and Minyi Guo, "Flexible Deterministic Packet Marking: An IP Traceback System to Find the Real Source of Attacks", IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 567-580, April 2009.

2. Shui Yu, Wanlei Zhou, Robin Doss, and Weijia Jia, "Traceback of DDoS Attacks using Entropy Variations", IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Vol. 22, No. 3, March 2011, pp. 412-425

3. Yang Xiang, Ke Li, and Wanlei Zhou, "Low-Rate DDoS Attacks Detection and Traceback by Using New Information Metrics", IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, Vol. 6, No. 2, June 2011, pp. 426-437.

4. Shui Yu, Wanlei Zhou, Weijia Jia, Song Guo, Yong Xiang, and Feilong Tang, "Discriminating DDoS Attacks from Flash Crowds Using Flow Correlation Coefficient", IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Vol. 23, No. 6, June 2012. pp. 1073-1080.

Our research work have been supported by the following Australia Research Council (ARC) grants:

1. ARC Linkage Project LP0562156: 2005-2008, Wanlei Zhou and Wei Shi, "Protecting Web Services from Distributed Denial of Service Attacks".

2. ARC Discovery Project DP0773264: 2007-2009, Wanlei Zhou and Yang Xiang, "Development of methods to address internet crime".

3. ARC Linkage Project LP100100208, 2010-2012, Wanlei Zhou and Yang Xiang, "An active approach to detect and defend against peer-to-peer botnets".

4. ARC Discovery Project DP1095498, 2010-2012, Yang Xiang, Wanlei Zhou, and Yong Xiang, "Tracing real Internet attackers through information correlation".

Speaker Bio

Professor Wanlei Zhou received the B.Eng (Computer Science and Engineering) and M.Eng (Computer Science and Engineering) degrees from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and the PhD degree from The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, in 1991. He also received a DSc degree (a higher Doctorate degree) from Deakin University in 2002 for his “substantial contribution to knowledge and authoritative standing” in the field of distributed computing. He is currently the Chair Professor in Information Technology and Head of School, School of Information Technology, Deakin University. Before joining Deakin University, Professor Zhou served as a system programmer in HP at Massachusetts, USA; a lecturer in Monash University, Melbourne, Australia; and a lecturer in National University of Singapore, Singapore. His research interests include theory and practical issues of building distributed systems, security and reliability of computer networks, bioinformatics, and e-learning. Professor Zhou has published more than 200 papers in refereed international journals and refereed international conferences proceedings. Professor Zhou has edited 5 books and authored 1 book. He has also chaired a number of international conferences. Prof Zhou is a Senior Member of the IEEE.