Identifying unauthorized entities from network traffic

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices to detect unauthorized third-party connections within a network infrastructure, such as by analyzing network traffic data using fuzzy matching and machine learning techniques. One aspect includes receiving network traffic data comprising records of communication events involving network identifiers, determining communication relationships between network entities identified by the network identifiers, accessing entity identifiers associated with known third-party systems, and determining associations between the network identifiers and the entity identifiers using a fuzzy matching process. Other aspects include identifying communication relationships involving the third-party systems based on the associations and detecting unregistered or unknown third-party connections within the network infrastructure. Further aspects include normalizing identifiers, computing string similarity metrics, assigning confidence scores, incorporating external data sources, building network association patterns, comparing current patterns to baseline patterns to detect anomalies, and updating security policies or firewall rules in response to detected anomalies. Additional aspects are provided.