Analysis of Periodicity in Botnets

Abstract

Analysis of Periodicity in Botnets by Prathiba Nagarajan A botnet consists of a network of infected computers which are controlled remotely via a command and control (C&C) server. A typical botnet requires frequent communication between the C&C server and the infected nodes. Previous approaches to detecting botnets have employed various machine learning techniques, based on features extracted from network traffic. In this research, we carefully analyze the periodicity of traffic as a means for detecting a variety of botnets by applying machine learning to publicly available datasets. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express gratitude to my advisor Prof. Mark Stamp for his patience, motivation and knowledge to guide this thesis and project. My thanks to the committee members Prof. Thomas Austin and Prof. Melody Moh for their encouragement. I would also like to thank Mr. Kevin Ross for sharing his knowledge about network concepts. I will forever be thankful to the Almighty, my parents, my husband, and friends for the immense support and guidance received throughout my journey. v