Described herein are systems and methods for performing potentially malicious activity detection operations. Embodiments may include receiving data associated with a plurality of authentication messages; analyzing the received data associated with the plurality of authentication messages; determining, based on the analyzing, a plurality of characteristics of the data associated with the authentication messages; receiving data associated with a new authentication message communicated over the network; determining a plurality of characteristics of the data associated with the new authentication message; comparing at least one determined characteristic of the new authentication message data with at least one of: a determined characteristic of the plurality of authentication messages data, known valid data, and known invalid data; and generating, based on the comparison, an assessment of whether the new authentication message is indicative of the potentially malicious activity in the network.