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Data Exfiltration: Methods and Detection Countermeasures

Summary:

Data exfiltration is of increasing concern throughout the world. The number of incidents and capabilities of data exfiltration attacks are growing at an unprecedented rate. However, such attack vectors have not been deeply explored in the literature. This paper aims to address this gap by implementing a data exfiltration methodology, detailing some data exfiltration methods. Groups of exfiltration methods are incorporated into a program that can act as a testbed for owners of any network that stores sensitive data. The implemented methods are tested against the well-known network intrusion detection system Snort, where all of them have been successfully evaded detection by its community rule sets. Thus, in this paper, we have developed new countermeasures to prevent and detect data exfiltration attempts using these methods.

Author(s):

James King    
University of Portsmouth
United Kingdom

Gueltoum Bendiab    
University of Portsmouth
United Kingdom

Nick Savage    
University of Portsmouth
United Kingdom

Stavros Shiaeles    
University of Portsmouth
United Kingdom