Auditory Display as a Tool for Teaching Network Intrusion Detection

• Main Authors: M.A. Garcia-Ruiz, A. Edwards, R. Aquino-Santos, M. Vargas Martin, S.A. El Seoud
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kassel University Press 2008-06-01
• Series: International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET)
• Subjects: Computer Networks; Network Intrusion Detection; Human-Computer Interaction; Auditory Display
• Online Access: http://online-journals.org/i-jet/article/view/202/439

Teaching network intrusion detection, or NID(the identification of violations of a security policy in acomputer network) is a challenging task, because studentsneed to analyze many data from network logs and in realtime to identify patterns of network attacks, making theseactivities visually tiring. This paper describes an ongoingresearch concerned with designing and applying sounds thatrepresent meaningful information in interfaces(sonification) to support teaching of NID. An usability testwas conducted with engineering students. Natural soundeffects (auditory icons) and musical sounds (earcons) wereused to represent network attacks. A post-activityquestionnaire showed that most students preferred auditoryicons for analyzing NID, and all of them were veryinterested in the design and application of sonifications.