Sequential pattern mining for ICT risk assessment and prevention

Security risk assessment and prevention in ICT systems rely on the analysis of data on the joint behavior of the system and its (malicious) users. The Haruspex tool models intelligent, goal-oriented agents that reach their goals through attack sequences. Data is synthetically generated through a Monte Carlo method that runs multiple simulations of the attacks against the system. In this paper, we present a sequential pattern mining analysis of the database of attack sequences. The intended objective is twofold: (1) to exploit the extracted patterns for the design of attack counter-measures, and (2) for gaining a better understanding of the “degree of freedom” available for the attackers of a system. We formally motivate the need for using maximal sequential patterns, instead of frequent or closed sequential patterns, and report on the results on a specific case study.