Computer and network security is fast becoming an important part of everyday life. In both home and commercial networks, people are implementing layers of security in order to protect themselves from threats, both real and perceived, originating from the Internet. One tool which is commonly deployed is the firewall. Unfortunately, firewalls do not provide information concerning the threats faced by a network.

In my project, I propose to build a proper network security box. This security box will run a hardened version of Gentoo. In addition, it will run the Snort IDS which will log to a database. This database will provide a tool known as BASE the necessary data so that analysis of the collected data from Snort can be performed. In addition, the box will feature a few tools for both passive and active security auditing and protection. Ideally, this security box will become a rapidly deployable tool for both securing the network, as well as logging suspicious and malicious network traffic.

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