IP darkspaces are global routable address spaces that contain no active hosts. All traffic to an IP darkspace is unsolicited and unidirectional. Observing and analyzing darkspace traffic has helped detect and analyze global incidents such as scannning, DDoS attacks, network outages and misconfigurations. Traffic destined to darkspace is evolving to include longer-duration, low-intensity events intended to establish and maintain botnets.

The goal of the DUST workshop series is to bring together researchers, operators, and analysts interested in unsolicited traffic analysis, especially traffic destined to unassigned (dark) IP address space.