Traffic Fingerprinting for Dynamic Cybersecurity Risk Scoring

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing cybersecurity systems lack the ability to perform active and passive external reconnaissance effectively, leading to inefficiencies in identifying vulnerabilities and threats, especially in large networks, and fail to provide dynamic and accurate cybersecurity ratings.

Innovation Solution

A system and method utilizing traffic fingerprinting, a global sensor network, web crawler, configurable proxy network, time-series data store, and directed computational graph module to analyze network data and produce dynamic cybersecurity scores, simulating attacks to improve threat assessment and scoring.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If traditional port scanning software is used to identify vulnerabilities and security risks, then the ability to find and identify vulnerabilities is improved, but the system lacks dynamic and accurate cybersecurity ratings and cannot perform effective external reconnaissance

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevulnerability identification accuracyVSAvoidcybersecurity rating accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by conducting both passive monitoring (collecting data without interacting with targets) and active scanning (sending probes to detect vulnerabilities) before generating cybersecurity ratings. This preliminary data collection from multiple sources enables more accurate and reliable vulnerability identification and security assessment.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The cybersecurity scoring system performs multiple functions: it conducts passive monitoring, active scanning, traffic fingerprinting, vulnerability detection, and generates dynamic security ratings all through one integrated platform. This multi-functional approach resolves the contradiction by combining various detection methods to improve both vulnerability identification accuracy and overall rating reliability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Quantity of substance

If massive port scans are performed across the entire IPv4 space to find vulnerabilities, then the quantity of identified security risks is improved, but the system complexity and resources required increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenumber of vulnerabilities identifiedVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the vast IPv4 address space into manageable regions and focuses scanning efforts on specific target networks rather than performing exhaustive scans of the entire internet. This segmentation allows the system to identify a sufficient quantity of vulnerabilities while reducing system complexity and resource requirements by concentrating computational power on relevant targets.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs partial scanning by focusing on specific ports, protocols, and network ranges that are most relevant to cybersecurity threats, rather than scanning every possible port on every IP address. This partial action approach maintains high vulnerability detection capability while significantly reducing system complexity compared to exhaustive scanning.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Adaptability or versatility

If real-time cybersecurity scoring is implemented to provide dynamic threat assessment, then the adaptability to changing threats is improved, but the computational resources and processing time required increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvereal-time threat adaptationVSAvoidcomputational energy consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements continuous cybersecurity monitoring and scoring by constantly collecting data from passive monitoring, active scanning, and threat intelligence sources. This continuous action enables real-time adaptation to changing threats while optimizing computational resource usage through sustained operational modes rather than intermittent heavy processing bursts.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses feedback mechanisms where cybersecurity scores and threat assessments are continuously updated based on new data from scanning operations and threat intelligence. This feedback loop enables real-time adaptability to emerging threats while managing computational resources efficiently by processing and updating scores based on the most current relevant information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS12489793B2Dynamic cybersecurity scoring using traffic fingerprinting and risk score improvement

Publication Date: 2025.12.02 QOMPLX INC

AI summary

A system for dynamic cybersecurity scoring using traffic fingerprinting and score improvement, that uses a web crawler that sends message prompts to external hosts and receives responses from external hosts, a time-series data store that produces time-series data from the message responses, and a directed computational graph module that analyzes the time-series data to produce a weighted score representing the overall cybersecurity state of an organization.