Dr. Vern Paxson and Dr. Robin Sommer’s landmark 2010 paper on the challenges of machine learning for intrusion detection honored for its enduring influence on the security industry
San Francisco, Calif. — May 18, 2020 — Corelight, provider of the most powerful network traffic analysis (NTA) solutions for cybersecurity, today announced two of its founders, Dr. Vern Paxson and Dr. Robin Sommer, have received the distinguished IEEE Security and Privacy “Test of Time” award for their work entitled “Outside the Closed World: On Using Machine Learning For Network Intrusion Detection” published in 2010.
The IEEE Security and Privacy “Test of Time” award is intended to recognize papers published at IEEE’s flagship security conference that have made a lasting impact on the field.
“Ten years ago when we set out to do this research, machine learning was still a pretty nascent technology, particularly as it related to network defense techniques,” said Paxson. “We hope that this paper continues to serve as a guidepost for further development of machine learning as an effective network defense mechanism.”
“The challenges to defenders attempting to leverage machine learning for anomaly detection, remain largely the same today,” said Sommer. “As such, it is an honor to receive this distinction from IEEE and to know that our research has made a major impact on the field.”
To qualify for an award, a paper must have been published at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (“S&P”) between 10 and 12 years prior. Each year, the awards selection committee is charged to select one or more winners from among the eligible set using their own experience and knowledge.
“Our committee looked for publications that were as rich in their foresight as in their technical and research contributions,” said Avi Rubin, 2020 IEEE S&P Test of Time Award selection committee chair and professor at Johns Hopkins University. “The selected papers have made a lasting impact on the field, transforming the research landscape with novel ideas that correctly predicted the direction of the field and the industry.”
About the IEEE Symposium on Security
Since 1980 in Oakland, Calif., the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy has been the premier forum for computer security research, presenting the latest developments and bringing together researchers and practitioners. We solicit previously unpublished papers offering novel research contributions in any aspect of security or privacy. Papers may present advances in the theory, design, implementation, analysis, verification, or empirical evaluation and measurement of secure systems.
About Corelight
Corelight delivers the most powerful network visibility solutions for information security professionals, helping them understand network traffic and defend their organizations more effectively. Corelight solutions are built on the Zeek framework (formerly known as “Bro”), the powerful and widely-used open source network analysis framework that generates actionable, real-time data for thousands of security teams worldwide. Zeek data has become the ‘gold standard’ for incident response, threat hunting, and forensics in large enterprises and government agencies worldwide. Corelight makes a family of network sensors — both physical and virtual, at every scale — that take the pain out of deploying Zeek by adding integrations and capabilities large organizations need. The Zeek project was initially developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and has been supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI). Corelight is based in San Francisco, Calif. For more information, visit Corelight.com or follow @corelight_inc.
