Professor Aims to Bolster Internet Research Infrastructure

Network telescopes detect cybersecurity threats, measure internet traffic, and serve many research purposes. Despite these benefits, the use of this technology has declined in recent years.

School of Computer Science Associate Professor Alberto Dainotti, however, is revolutionizing network telescopes through a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Network telescopes use large sets of inactive IP addresses to observe unsolicited internet traffic, typically considered “pollution,” to reveal many internet phenomena. These observations can be used to detect denial-of-service attacks and find viruses or other malicious activity.