Sharing computer network logs for security and privacy: a motivation for new methodologies of anonymization

Abstract

Logs are one of the most fundamental resources to any security professional. It is widely recognized by the government and industry that it is both beneficial and desirable to share logs for the purpose of security research. However, the sharing is not happening or not to the degree or magnitude that is desired. Organizations are reluctant to share logs because of the risk from exposing sensitive information to potential attackers. In this paper we survey current attempts at sharing logs and current log anonymization tools. We further define the problem and describe a roadmap to solve the issues that have to date inhibited large scale log sharing.