arXiv subjects

Nickson M. Karie

Publications and source records attributed to Nickson M. Karie.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

A Deterministic Forensic Preprocessing Framework for Heterogeneous Network Datasets: Formal Foundations, Implementation, and Empirical Validation

Digital forensic investigations increasingly depend on preprocessing heterogeneous network evidence from intrusion detection systems, IoT devices, and enterprise traffic logs. Incompatible schemas and timestamp formats hinder evidence correlation and timeline reconstruction, while current ad hoc approaches offer no mechanism to verify consistency across runs or analysis, creating reproducibility gaps that challenge evidence admissibility. This paper introduces a deterministic forensic preprocessing framework that converts heterogeneous network datasets into a reproducible canonical form. The framework formalises three preprocessing transformations: schema normalisation, temporal normalisation, and provenance tracking. These transformations are specified using set-theoretic definitions and supported by four theorems establishing determinism, information preservation, and provenance completeness. A chunk-based architecture provides O(c) bounded memory. Empirical evaluation across UNSW-NB15, IoT-23, and TON_IoT demonstrates 100% output consistency across repeated runs, robust temporal normalisation completeness over heterogeneous timestamp formats, and scalable performance from millions to hundreds of millions of records.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2025

LLMLogAnalyzer: A Clustering-Based Log Analysis Chatbot using Large Language Models

System logs are a cornerstone of cybersecurity, supporting proactive breach prevention and post-incident investigations. However, analyzing vast amounts of diverse log data remains significantly challenging, as high costs, lack of in-house expertise, and time constraints make even basic analysis difficult for many organizations. This study introduces LLMLogAnalyzer, a clustering-based log analysis chatbot that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to simplify and streamline log analysis processes. This innovative approach addresses key LLM limitations, including context window constraints and poor structured text handling capabilities, enabling more effective summarization, pattern extraction, and anomaly detection tasks. LLMLogAnalyzer is evaluated across four distinct domain logs and various tasks. Results demonstrate significant performance improvements over state-of-the-art LLM-based chatbots, including ChatGPT, ChatPDF, and NotebookLM, with consistent gains ranging from 39% to 68% across different tasks. The system also exhibits strong robustness, achieving a 93% reduction in interquartile range (IQR) when using ROUGE-1 scores, indicating significantly lower result variability. The framework's effectiveness stems from its modular architecture comprising a router, log recognizer, log parser, and search tools. This design enhances LLM capabilities for structured text analysis while improving accuracy and robustness, making it a valuable resource for both cybersecurity experts and non-technical users.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2021

Digital Forensic Readiness Implementation in SDN: Issues and Challenges

The continued evolution in computer network technologies has seen the introduction of new paradigms like Software Defined Networking (SDN) which has altered many traditional networking principles in todays business environments. SDN has brought about unprecedented change to the way organisations plan, develop, and enact their networking technology and infrastructure strategies. However, SDN does not only offer new opportunities and abilities for organisations to redesign their entire network infrastructure but also presents a different set of issues and challenges that need to be resolved. One such challenge is the implementation of Digital Forensic Readiness (DFR) in SDN environments. This paper, therefore, examines existing literature and highlights the different issues and challenges impacting the implementation of DFR in SDN. However, the paper also goes further to offer insights on the different countermeasures that organisations can embrace to enhance their ability to respond to cybersecurity incidents as well as help them in implementing DFR in SDN environments

cs.CR↗

arXiv2020

Real-time monitoring as a supplementary security component of vigilantism in modern network environments

The phenomenon of network vigilantism is autonomously attributed to how anomalies and obscure activities from adversaries can be tracked in realtime. Needless to say, in today dynamic, virtualized, and complex network environments, it has become undeniably necessary for network administrators, analysts as well as engineers to practice network vigilantism, on traffic as well as other network events in real-time. The reason is to understand the exact security posture of an organization network environment at any given time. This is driven by the fact that modern network environments do, not only present new opportunities to organizations but also a different set of new and complex cybersecurity challenges that need to be resolved daily. The growing size, scope, complexity, and volume of networked devices in our modern network environments also makes it hard even for the most experienced network administrators to independently provide the breadth and depth of knowledge needed to oversee or diagnose complex network problems. Besides, with the growing number of Cyber Security Threats in the world today, many organizations have been forced to change the way they plan, develop and implement cybersecurity strategies as a way to reinforce their ability to respond to cybersecurity incidents. This paper, therefore, examines the relevance of RealTime Monitoring (RTM) as a supplementary security component of vigilantism in modern network environments, more especially for proper planning, preparedness, and mitigation in case of a cybersecurity incident. Additionally, this paper also investigates some of the key issues and challenges surrounding the implementation of RTM for security vigilantism in our modern network environments.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2020

Detecting Centralized Architecture-Based Botnets using Travelling Salesperson Non-Deterministic Polynomial-Hard problem, TSP-NP Technique

The threats posed by botnets in the cyberspace continue to grow each day and it has become very hard to detect or infiltrate the cynicism of bots. This, is owing to the fact, that, the botnet developers each day, keep changing the propagation and attack techniques. Currently, most of these attacks have been centered on stealing computing energy, theft of personal information and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. In this paper, the authors propose a novel technique that uses the Non-Deterministic Polynomial-Time Hardness (NP-Hard Problem) based on the Traveling Salesperson Person (TSP) that depicts that a given bot, bj, is able to visit each host on a network environment, NE, and then it returns to the botmaster, in form of instruction(command), through optimal minimization of the hosts that are (may) be attacked. Given that bj represents a piece of malicious code and TSP-NP Hard Problem, which forms part of combinatorial optimization, the authors present this as an effective approach for the detection of the botnet. It is worth noting that the concentration of this study is basically on the centralized botnet architecture. This holistic approach shows that botnet detection accuracy can be increased with a degree of certainty and potentially decrease the chances of false positives. Nevertheless, a discussion on the possible applicability and implementation has also been given in this paper.

cs.CR↗