The Syntax Chronicles: Dorothy E. Denning — Security pioneer and thought leader
The woman who redefined cyber security
Cybercrime continues to flourish and in the face of digital threats, the importance of cybersecurity cannot be underestimated. The work of security researcher Dorothy E. Denning (born 1945) is still an indispensable influence in cyber security today.
Who is Dorothy E. Denning?
Dorothy E. Denning is known for her contributions to information security, especially intrusion detection. She is known not only for her impressive academic career, but also for her groundbreaking research and publications in cyber security.
Denning recognised the need for robust security systems long before the world knew about cybercrime and digital threats. Her work laid the foundation for many modern security technologies that we use every day today.
What is intrusion detection?
Intrusion detection is a security management approach that aims to detect and prevent unauthorised access to a network or system.
The model includes profiles that represent the behaviour of users in relation to system resources in the form of metrics and statistical models, as well as rules for gaining knowledge about this behaviour from audit logs and identifying deviant behaviour.
The model is not tied to a specific system, application environment, system vulnerability or type of intrusion and therefore provides a framework for a general intrusion detection expert system.
At its core, Denning’s intrusion detection model works by continuously monitoring a system’s audit logs and looking for unusual usage patterns. These unusual patterns could indicate a security breach, such as an intrusion attempt or penetration. The model then uses its profiles and rules to analyse this deviant behaviour and determine if it is indeed a security breach.
It is important to emphasise that this model is not based on any particular system or application environment. Rather, it is a universal model that can be applied to a wide variety of systems and application environments. This makes it a valuable tool for detecting intrusion attempts in many different contexts.
This process, pioneered by Denning, is an essential component of many modern security systems.
Recognition and the shaping of cyber security
The importance of Denning’s work has been recognised by the IT community and she has received numerous awards for her contributions to cyber security (ACM Fellow (1995), National Computer Systems Security Award (1999), TechnoSecurity Professional of the Year Award (2000), Augusta Ada Lovelace Award (2001), National Cyber Security Hall of Fame (2012)). While her journey has not always been easy, she has nonetheless made a lasting impact on cybersecurity technology despite all the challenges and managed to have her work recognised.
Denning’s work protects our everyday lives
To this day, we all benefit from Denning’s innovative spirit and technical brilliance. Whether we are banking online, sending emails or surfing social networks, the technologies Denning enabled are ubiquitous.
Sources:
Denning, D. E. (n.d.). Dorothy E. Denning. In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 11, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_E._Denning
Naval Postgraduate School. (n.d.). Dorothy E. Denning at NPS. Retrieved July 11, 2023, from https://faculty.nps.edu/dedennin/
Indiana University. (n.d.). Dorothy Denning: Modern Cybersecurity Trailblazers. Retrieved July 11, 2023, from https://cewit.indiana.edu/programs/cybersecurity/profiles-current-trailblazers/denning.html
Google Scholar. (n.d.). Dorothy Denning — Google Scholar. Retrieved July 11, 2023, from https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4nX0ljsAAAAJ&hl=en
DBLP. (n.d.). Dorothy E. Denning — DBLP. Retrieved July 11, 2023, from https://dblp.org/pid/d/DorothyEDenning
Denning, D. E. (1986). An Intrusion-Detection Model. 1986 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. Retrieved July 11, 2023, from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6234848
