AI Cyber Defense / Network detection, DNS and egress analytics
AI Cyber Defense: Preserve meaningful packet evidence under storage limits
Define targeted capture escalation for specific approved assets while keeping continuous bounded metadata. Record access controls and minimization requirements for sensitive payloads.
Environment and inputs: Network detection and response using resolver logs, proxy metadata, flow records and optional Zeek or Suricata sensors.
Scenario and goal
An incident can outlast full-packet retention, leaving analysts with metadata that cannot answer content questions.
Why it matters
For this scenario, expect behavior to vary across destinations, timing and client software. Network metadata supports a hypothesis, while endpoint and identity records often explain the actor and purpose. Account for encryption, sampling and sensor placement before interpreting absence. A statistical anomaly, protocol fingerprint or unfamiliar domain should remain a supporting observation until its consequence and business context are established.
Evidence to collect
Track retention windows, capture filters, encryption visibility and time alignment for packet and flow stores.
Validate with an authorized exercise
Use a harmless lab flow and verify it can be located in both stores before retention expires; confirm expired packet data is reported unavailable rather than silently inferred.
Rollout and checks
Preserve event time, source tuple, sensor identity and the original record identifier for every decisive observation. Verify clock alignment and collection health before joining sources. Compare a representative benign workload with the suspected behavior in a lab or stored-event replay. Adjust a detection only after documenting which observed distinction justifies the change.
Scope and limits
This guide proposes a defensive test; it is not a tested production design. Check platform support and local requirements. References explain the mechanisms but do not certify the design. Behavior alone does not prove AI involvement.