Patent ID: 7590113

Claim:
A method for generating a reconnaissance index for a communications network, comprising: receiving, by a processor, scan detection data; collecting, by said processor, reconnaissance activity attribute data from said scan detection data, wherein said reconnaissance activity attribute data comprises a number of scan flows and a number of unique source Internet protocol (SIP) addresses initiating said number of scan flows; and generating, by said processor, said reconnaissance index by utilizing said reconnaissance activity attribute data, wherein said generating comprises utilizing said number of scan flows and said number of unique SIP addresses to generate said reconnaissance index, and wherein said reconnaissance index is generated in accordance with: Sources_Index=({ x *[(weighting constant A )*(number of unique SIPs )])/ z Probes_Index=( y *[(weighting constant B )*(number of scan flows)]})/ z Reconnaissance Index=Sources_Index+Probes_Index wherein said z is a weighting factor, said x is a source index weighing factor, and said y is a probe index weighing factor.