MalAware: An Agile and OSEMN-Based Big Data Visualisation for Malware Detection

Malware is very harmful software and contains threats to any computer, whether a traditional computer or mobile device. Malware is short-term malicious software that a computer device could easily contract without any precautions taken by its users. The malware attack could cause fraud, scams, and security breaches, leading to consequences such as security compromise, loss of assets, damages, and many more. The study intends to help the public community and researchers become more aware of the existence of malware and the possibilities it could cause. The visualization dashboard called MalAware enables users to observe and distinguish the threats of types and families of malware. The MalAware dashboard adopts an agile methodology for the project development, combined with using an OSEMN data pipeline where data analytics and visualization techniques are applied. The information visualization theory is adopted to design visual representations of complex data to facilitate understanding and insight. Thus, interactive features are implemented where users can click buttons and search for files and domains that are identified as malicious and learn more about them. In making sure that the dashboard is up and ready to use, usability testing has been conducted to confirm that all the features and functions in the dashboard are working well, enough information has been conveyed, and the content inside the dashboard is easy to comprehend and understandable. Data visualization contributes very much in terms of assisting users in creating and raising awareness concerning malicious software.