Real-Time Network Cyber Situational Awareness in B5G Networks

The dynamic nature of beyond 5G network (B5G) topologies imposes continuous and real-time cyber situational awareness (CSA) to make cognitive security orchestration according to the actual context. In this sense, security orchestration decisions such as virtual network security functions placement or (re)configuration of the system to counter cyberthreats can benefit of these kind of CSA models. Traditional infrastructure and service models for CSA such as CRUSOE capture the security posture, missions, networks and assets, that can be used as baseline for cognitive functions such as cyber asset attack surface management, risk-trust assessment as well as detection and mitigation of cyber-attacks. However, these infrastructure data models and tools have not been adapted to complex B5G domains and do not support real-time processing of 6 G network traffic that, once supported, can boost context awareness and decision making. This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of the extension to the CRUSOE infrastructure model to enable the real-time modeling of 6G network flows, thereby increasing cyber security awareness capabilities in 6 G Security Operation Centers (6G-SOC), that ultimately, can help to improve cognitive security management of 6 G networks. The implementation and performance evaluation carried out shows promising results to capture and model in real time the dynamicity of 6G network topologies and traffic.