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The Spinning Cube of Potential Doom

Posted by michael on from the wing-commander dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This month's Communications of the ACM (does not seem to have a link to online text) has an article about The Spinning Cube of Potential Doom, a security visualization tool that I first saw at SC2003. The cube displays data from Bro along 3 axes and creates interesting visual results (port scans, barber poles, lawnmower). This definitely makes patterns in all that 'boring log data' jump out. This is a very interesting development, the ability to monitor in real time and replay historical security related information. Definitely a step towards the new types of tools we will need to secure hosts and networks."

2 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. I beg to differ by broothal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Definitely a step towards the new types of tools we will need to secure hosts and networks."

    I'm sorry, but I do not agree. While it makes it easy to visually detect intrusion attempts, it is of no use in the daily life of a BOFH. I have the responsibility of quite a number of machines. Most of the time, they don't require attention. So I don't pay them any. Then, once in a while, something extraordinary is happening, and I'm being alerted by an automatic monitoring system. That means I can use my day on all the important things (like hanging out on IRC etc). Visualizing network intrusion attempts is cool, but it's not a tool for me.

    1. Re:I beg to differ by Minwee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The daily life of most admins include something called "Talking To Managers".

      Having a shiny toy with brightly coloured lights on it is a vital part of that excercise for many of us. We NEED this. We NEED it to have the Fisher-Price logo on it and play short musical bits when you push on the buttons. We NEED to be able to say "Here is a pretty picture. You like pretty pictures, don't you? The brightly coloured parts show bad people. Oooh, brightly coloured. Look at the picture. Do you like the picture? Good, now there are a few things we need to discuss about next year's budget..."

      Automated monitoring systems that handle problems for you make you (and themselves) look unnecessary. Pretty pictures with lights can be used to show everybody you work for just how important you really are.