Researchers at George Mason University's Center for Secure Information Systems said networks are highly interdependent and each machine's overall susceptibility to attack depends on the vulnerabilities of the other machines in the network.

"Currently, network administrators must rely on labor-intensive processes for tracking network configurations and vulnerabilities, which requires a great deal of expertise and is error prone because of the complexity, volume and frequent changes in security data and network configurations," said Professor Sushil Jajodia. "This new software is an automated tool that can analyze and visualize vulnerabilities and attack paths, encouraging 'what-if analysis.'"

The software called, Cauldron, allows for the transformation of raw security data into road maps that allow users to prepare for attacks, manage vulnerability risks and have real-time situational awareness. Cauldron provides informed risk analysis, analyzes vulnerability dependencies and shows possible attack paths into a network.

Five patents are pending on the Cauldron program.

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