Level 3 Communications, LLC

Thomas B Boatwright

Skyler Jameson Bingham

Jeffrey Bickford

Methods and systems for identifying threats within a network include collecting network traffic data and providing the network traffic data to a classifier configured to identify patterns within the network traffic data consistent with malicious computing devices. The computing devices identified by the classifier are then validated to confirm whether they are, in fact, malicious. In one implementation, such validation is accomplished by interrogating suspected malicious computing devices with messages according to a particular communication protocol and determining whether corresponding responses received form the malicious computing devices are similarly in accordance with the communication protocol. In certain implementations, after identification and validation of a malicious computing device, an emulated computing device is used to continue communication with the malicious computing device and to log characteristics of such communications to further train the classifier.

Network threat validation and monitoring

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods, computer program products, and the like, for detecting a spoofed source IP address on an incoming communication to any type of network, such as a telecommunications or content delivery network. Each interface to the network may include a classifier that defines or describes source IP addresses that are recognized by the interface as a valid source IP address. If a received communication packet includes a source IP address that is not included or defined by the interface classifier, the packet is considered as a possible spoofed IP address and one or more mitigation techniques may be applied to the incoming packet to prevent an attack on a device or network utilizing the spoofed packet. Such techniques may lessen or prevent an unauthorized access of the device or network or a DDOS attack on the network or device.

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Denver, CO, United States of America

Thomas B Boatwright