Starlight Breach Detector

The project draws inspiration from three sources: 1) The 'Energy Consumption' scraper project provides the basis for monitoring energy usage; 2) 'Nightfall' by Asimov & Silverberg, where a sudden darkness reveals hidden dangers, translates to a situation where a newly discovered vulnerability ('darkness') suddenly exposes all systems; 3) Star Wars Episode IV, where a seemingly insignificant flaw leads to the destruction of the Death Star, highlights the potential for cascading failures from a single point of weakness.

Concept: Starlight Breach Detector is a low-cost cybersecurity tool focused on identifying and mitigating the spread of zero-day exploits within a network. It operates by continuously monitoring the energy consumption patterns of network devices (servers, routers, switches, IoT devices) in real-time. The core idea is that malicious software exploiting a vulnerability often leads to increased computational load, resulting in a detectable spike in energy consumption. This spike is analogous to the 'Starlight' (energy signature) betraying the vulnerability.

How it works:
1. Baseline Creation: The tool first establishes a baseline of 'normal' energy consumption for each device using historical data (scraped via SNMP, APIs, or smart power strips). This baseline is crucial for accurate anomaly detection.
2. Real-time Monitoring: The tool continuously monitors the current energy consumption of each device.
3. Anomaly Detection: An algorithm (e.g., statistical process control, machine learning) identifies deviations from the baseline. A significant increase in energy consumption, especially if accompanied by other suspicious activity (e.g., network traffic spikes, unusual process activity), triggers an alert.
4. Containment & Mitigation: Upon detecting an anomaly, the tool can automatically initiate pre-defined containment actions, such as:
- Isolating the affected device from the network.
- Throttling network traffic to and from the device.
- Restarting the device.
- Alerting security personnel.

Niche & Low-Cost: This tool targets small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with limited cybersecurity budgets. The focus on energy consumption provides a unique and cost-effective approach compared to traditional intrusion detection systems. It can be implemented using open-source tools and readily available hardware (e.g., Raspberry Pi for monitoring, smart power strips).

High Earning Potential: The tool's niche focus on SMBs, combined with its low cost and effectiveness in detecting zero-day exploits, creates significant earning potential. Potential revenue streams include:
- Software subscriptions.
- Managed security services.
- Vulnerability assessments based on energy consumption analysis.
- Incident response services.
The 'Nightfall' is prevented by detecting the anomaly (Starlight) early and preventing the 'Death Star' from exploding (cascading system failure).