Addressing Unwanted Internet Traffic at Its Source

There is a constant buzz in the Internet— the noise caused by unwanted network traffic. This is a systemic risk to the Internet, carrying most of the attacks that threaten our everyday lives as Internet users, from phishing attacks to ransomware. That buzz also conceals more advanced forms of attack, those used against critical infrastructures, industrial secrets, and even democracies.

Gathering information since 2019, AIDE is a threat intelligence platform that collects data from a globally distributed network of honeypots to offer actionable insights into infected Internet infrastructure.

We see over 30 million hits a month, and we know that’s just a fraction of the overall issue.

AIDE is part of GCA’s Internet Integrity Program.

One key outcome of AIDE is the Internet Pollution Index, which quantifies global network pollution by evaluating both the volume and severity of that traffic.

While this is just one aspect of what we can do with our broader AIDE platform, the Internet Pollution Index provides a precise, normalized metric that reflects the intensity of malicious activity emanating from each economy’s network operators, as measured by autonomous systems (ASes).

The Internet Pollution Index measures how “polluted” an economy’s network activity is by combining the frequency and severity of different types of events. In essence, the Index reflects not just the volume of activity but also its potential threat level. It also reflects network activity as seen from the autonomous systems in that economy and considers the number of distinct IP addresses involved in unwanted behavior.

This approach allows us to compare threat levels across economies on a level playing field, ensuring that nations with larger network spaces are not unfairly penalized.