Computer implemented techniques for detecting, investigating and remediating security violations to IT infrastructure

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memories comprising computer readable code,
• wherein the one or more processors, in response to execution of the computer program code, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:
• determining that network activity in an infrastructure at a specific time is deemed to be suspicious based at least on network activity as observed on switches in the infrastructure;
• determining, using Internet protocol addresses involved in the suspicious network activity observed on one or more of the switches, one or more computer systems in the infrastructure that are sources of the suspicious network activity;
• determining, based on the specific time and the determined one or more computer systems, one or more applications executing on the one or more determined computer systems in the infrastructure that are causing the suspicious network activity to be observed at least by determining which applications from the one or more determined computer systems were causing network traffic at the specific time, and determining which applications were causing network traffic at the specific time is based on collected system calls and call parameters for system calls that were performed by the one or more determined computer systems and is based on corresponding timestamps indicating when the system calls were invoked, where operating system kernels on the one or more determined computer systems have been instrumented via code instructions in the operating system kernels to report at least the system calls and call parameters invoked by monitored applications;
• determining whether any collected events and measurements corresponding to the one or more applications are considered significant for analysis;
• analyzing any collected events and measurements determined to be significant for analysis to determine whether a security violation has occurred for any of the one or more applications;
• and
• causing, in response to a security violation being deemed to have occurred for at least one of the one or more applications, one or more remedial actions to be performed for the determined one or more computer systems that correspond to the at least one application.

A computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by an apparatus comprising one or more processors to cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

• determining that network activity in an infrastructure at a specific time is deemed to be suspicious based at least on network activity as observed on switches in the infrastructure;
• determining, using Internet protocol addresses involved in the suspicious network activity observed on one or more of the switches, one or more computer systems in the infrastructure that are sources of the suspicious network activity;
• determining, based on the specific time and the determined one or more computer systems, one or more applications executing on the one or more determined computer systems in the infrastructure that are causing the suspicious network activity to be observed at least by determining which applications from the one or more determined computer systems were causing network traffic at the specific time, and determining which applications were causing network traffic at the specific time is based on collected system calls and call parameters for system calls that were performed by the one or more determined computer systems and is based on corresponding timestamps indicating when the system calls were invoked, where operating system kernels on the one or more determined computer systems have been instrumented via code instructions in the operating system kernels to report at least the system calls and call parameters invoked by monitored applications;
• determining whether any collected events and measurements corresponding to the one or more applications are considered significant for analysis;
• analyzing any collected events and measurements determined to be significant for analysis to determine whether a security violation has occurred for any of the one or more applications;
• and
• causing, in response to a security violation being deemed to have occurred for at least one of the one or more applications, one or more remedial actions to be performed for the determined one or more computer systems that correspond to the at least one application.