Improving security with cognitive workflows

Abstract

Cloud Computing, SDN and virtual networking technologies have completely modified the relationship between the applications and the hardware resources that are used to execute them. They are no more tightly coupled to each other in a static context. However, elastic on-demand provisioning, auto-scaling and migration provided by cloud resources to address fluctuations in workload demands or available resource pools also bring with them new issues in managing security. In this paper, the authors propose a novel security system based on the concept of cognitive control overlay to proactively manage the security of service transactions. In particular, when the application components move, their configuration changes and the conventional intrusion detection systems (IDS) not aware of the mobility will fail. The cognitive overlay makes the IDS become aware of the mobility and take appropriate action. The solution addresses application security independent of server and network based security management systems.