Strengthening intrusion detection system for adversarial attacks: improved handling of imbalance classification problem

Abstract

Most defence mechanisms such as a network-based intrusion detection system (NIDS) are often sub-optimal for the detection of an unseen malicious pattern. In response, a number of studies attempt to empower a machine-learning-based NIDS to improve the ability to recognize adversarial attacks. Along this line of research, the present work focuses on non-payload connections at the TCP stack level, which is generalized and applicable to different network applications. As a compliment to the recently published investigation that searches for the most informative feature space for classifying obfuscated connections, the problem of class imbalance is examined herein. In particular, a multiple-clustering-based undersampling framework is proposed to determine the set of cluster centroids that best represent the majority class, whose size is reduced to be on par with that of the minority. Initially, a pool of centroids is created using the concept of ensemble clustering that aims to obtain a collection of accurate and diverse clusterings. From that, the final set of representatives is selected from this pool. Three different objective functions are formed for this optimization driven process, thus leading to three variants of FF-Majority, FF-Minority and FF-Overall. Based on the thorough evaluation of a published dataset, four classification models and different settings, these new methods often exhibit better predictive performance than its baseline, the single-clustering undersampling counterpart and state-of-the-art techniques. Parameter analysis and implication for analyzing an extreme case are also provided as a guideline for future applications.

Heuristic Optimization Algorithm with Ensemble Learning Model for Intelligent Intrusion Detection and Classification

“…DL relies on an Artificial Neural Network (ANN), while the ML technique has a relatively simple structure. DL method has outperformed the classical ML technique while engaging with a massive set of data [8]. Furthermore, the ML method requires human intervention for feature extraction to accomplish more effective outcomes.…”

Semi-Supervised Intrusion Detection Based on Stacking and Feature-Engineering to Handle Data Imbalance

“…A similar model using deep learning based technique for intrusion detection has been proposed by Rani (5) . An attack-based intrusion detection model for enhanced detection over imbalanced data has been proposed by Pimsarn (6) . This work uses a sliding window technique and combines it with a logical fractal dimension to provide effective detection of DDoS attacks.…”