Outsourcing home network security

The growth of home and small enterprise networks brings with it a large number of devices and networks that are either managed poorly or not at all. Hosts on these networks may become compromised and become sources of spam, denial-of-service traffic, or the site of a scam or phishing attack site. Although a typical user now knows how to apply software updates and run anti-virus software, these techniques still require user vigilance, and they offer no recourse when a machine ultimately becomes compromised. Rather than having individual networks managed independently, we propose to outsource the management and operation of these networks to a third party that has both operations expertise and a broader view of network activity. Our approach harnesses two trends: (1) the advent of programmable network switches, which offer flexibility and the possibility for remote management; and (2) the increasing application of distributed network monitoring and inference algorithms to network security problems (an appealing technique because of its ability to reveal coordinated behavior that may represent an attack).