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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hammar, Kim, Stadler, Rolf
Format: Preprint
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.00289
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author Hammar, Kim
Stadler, Rolf
author_facet Hammar, Kim
Stadler, Rolf
contents We study automated intrusion prevention using reinforcement learning. Following a novel approach, we formulate the problem of intrusion prevention as an (optimal) multiple stopping problem. This formulation gives us insight into the structure of optimal policies, which we show to have threshold properties. For most practical cases, it is not feasible to obtain an optimal defender policy using dynamic programming. We therefore develop a reinforcement learning approach to approximate an optimal threshold policy. We introduce T-SPSA, an efficient reinforcement learning algorithm that learns threshold policies through stochastic approximation. We show that T-SPSA outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms for our use case. Our overall method for learning and validating policies includes two systems: a simulation system where defender policies are incrementally learned and an emulation system where statistics are produced that drive simulation runs and where learned policies are evaluated. We show that this approach can produce effective defender policies for a practical IT infrastructure.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2111_00289
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Intrusion Prevention through Optimal Stopping
Hammar, Kim
Stadler, Rolf
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
Networking and Internet Architecture
We study automated intrusion prevention using reinforcement learning. Following a novel approach, we formulate the problem of intrusion prevention as an (optimal) multiple stopping problem. This formulation gives us insight into the structure of optimal policies, which we show to have threshold properties. For most practical cases, it is not feasible to obtain an optimal defender policy using dynamic programming. We therefore develop a reinforcement learning approach to approximate an optimal threshold policy. We introduce T-SPSA, an efficient reinforcement learning algorithm that learns threshold policies through stochastic approximation. We show that T-SPSA outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms for our use case. Our overall method for learning and validating policies includes two systems: a simulation system where defender policies are incrementally learned and an emulation system where statistics are produced that drive simulation runs and where learned policies are evaluated. We show that this approach can produce effective defender policies for a practical IT infrastructure.
title Intrusion Prevention through Optimal Stopping
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Cryptography and Security
Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.00289