Inference Attack

An inference attack is a variation of data mining. The overall object is to gather information at one level of security and conclude facts that should be protected at a higher level. It occurs when an individual is able to infer critical information from a trivial source without accessing it directly. This is often the result of a website or service that has a few known security vulnerabilities. In this instance, an inference attack can be viewed as a breach of data security. An effective counter against an inference attack is called Computer Security Inference Control. It is a protocol that tries to prevent unauthorized users from inferring classified data from accessible bits of data with a lower classification. Network administrators and computer security technicians typically implement various protocols into databases to prevent inference attacks that initiate with data mining software. To the current day, there is still no type of software to prevent an attack from a human inference engine.