Instrumentation of an intrusion detection system in a cluster environment

This research is concerned with implementing security in a cluster environment. The research presented an opportunity to address the complex issue of security in clusters and to determine the possibility of effectively deploying the Intelligent Intrusion Detection System (IID) under development in the department of computer science at Mississippi State University to the cluster environment.;The main objectives of this research are to: (1) Identify the complexity of implementing security in cluster environment due to its design, architecture and use. (2) Distinguish between the traditional distributed network environment and cluster environment and identify the security concerns specific to a cluster environment. (3) Determine the possibility of deploying an intrusion detection system in a cluster environment. (4) Identify the requirements and suggest changes in the Intelligent Intrusion Detection tool to make it effective in cluster environment.;To achieve these objectives and illustrate the complex security problem in clusters, several related topics are covered in this research. This included topics on security concerns in high performance and distributed network environments, types of attacks present in distributed networks and their degree of threat in clusters, different approaches and types of intrusion detection, and study of some commercially available intrusion detection tools. The observations gathered from study of the specific characteristics of clusters, security concerns, and their comparison with traditional distributed network environment suggests that the choice of the IIDS would be a viable solution for cluster environment.