Auditing and monitoring the security of NFV and SDN-based cloud environments

拟议研究的主要目标是开发一种新颖而全面的解决方案，用于自动化新兴网络功能虚拟化（NFV）和基于软件定义网络（SDN）的云网络的安全审计和监控。新知识和技术将通过该项目转移到加拿大工业，包括一系列专门为NFV和sdn云网络设计的解决方案，包括审计此类网络安全属性的定量方法、基于机器学习的安全监控主动解决方案、基于主动探测的安全合规性验证方法，而无需访问网络痕迹。以及解决审计和监控中各种隐私问题的新技术。预计业界和学术界都将获得的主要好处包括：新颖的研究思路和方法，可以推动云安全、NFV和SDN安全领域的最新发展；对安全从业人员（包括我们的工业合作伙伴（爱立信加拿大））有价值的研究原型和相关演示；最后，为日益需要高度专业化专业知识的新兴行业培训HQP。

The primary objective of the proposed research is to develop a novel and comprehensive solution for automating the security auditing and monitoring of emerging Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN)-based cloud networks. New knowledge and technologies that would be transferred to Canadian industry through this project comprise a series of solutions designed specifically for NFV and SDN-based cloud networks, including a quantitative approach to auditing security properties of such networks, a machine learning-based proactive solution to security monitoring, an active probing-based method for securely verifying security compliance without accessing network traces, and novel techniques for addressing various privacy issues in auditing and monitoring. The key benefits expected to accrue to both the industry and academia include novel research ideas and methodology that could advance the state of the art in cloud security, NFV and SDN security, a research prototype and related demos that would be valuable to security practitioners, including those at our industrial partner (Ericsson Canada), and finally the training of HQP for an emerging industry which increasingly demands highly specialized expertise.