Network intrusion detection using machine learning approaches: Addressing data imbalance

Abstract Cybersecurity has become a significant issue. Machine learning algorithms are known to help identify cyberattacks such as network intrusion. However, common network intrusion datasets are negatively affected by class imbalance: the normal traffic behaviour constitutes most of the dataset, w...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rahbar Ahsan, Wei Shi, Jean‐Pierre Corriveau
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-03-01
Series:IET Cyber-Physical Systems
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1049/cps2.12013
Description
Summary:Abstract Cybersecurity has become a significant issue. Machine learning algorithms are known to help identify cyberattacks such as network intrusion. However, common network intrusion datasets are negatively affected by class imbalance: the normal traffic behaviour constitutes most of the dataset, whereas intrusion traffic behaviour forms a significantly smaller portion. A comparative evaluation of the performance is conducted of several classical machine learning algorithms, as well as deep learning algorithms, on the well‐known National Security Lab Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining dataset for intrusion detection. More specifically, two variants of a fully connected neural network, one with an autoencoder and one without, have been implemented to compare their performance against seven classical machine learning algorithms. A voting classifier is also proposed to combine the decisions of these nine machine learning algorithms. All of the models are tested in combination with three different resampling techniques: oversampling, undersampling, and hybrid sampling. The details of the experiments conducted and an analysis of their results are then discussed.
ISSN:2398-3396