Evaluating ML-Based Anomaly Detection Across Datasets of Varied Integrity: A Case Study

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Pekar, Adrian, Jozsa, Richard
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Pekar, Adrian
Jozsa, Richard
author_facet Pekar, Adrian
Jozsa, Richard
contents Cybersecurity remains a critical challenge in the digital age, with network traffic flow anomaly detection being a key pivotal instrument in the fight against cyber threats. In this study, we address the prevalent issue of data integrity in network traffic datasets, which are instrumental in developing machine learning (ML) models for anomaly detection. We introduce two refined versions of the CICIDS-2017 dataset, NFS-2023-nTE and NFS-2023-TE, processed using NFStream to ensure methodologically sound flow expiration and labeling. Our research contrasts the performance of the Random Forest (RF) algorithm across the original CICIDS-2017, its refined counterparts WTMC-2021 and CRiSIS-2022, and our NFStream-generated datasets, in both binary and multi-class classification contexts. We observe that the RF model exhibits exceptional robustness, achieving consistent high-performance metrics irrespective of the underlying dataset quality, which prompts a critical discussion on the actual impact of data integrity on ML efficacy. Our study underscores the importance of continual refinement and methodological rigor in dataset generation for network security research. As the landscape of network threats evolves, so must the tools and techniques used to detect and analyze them.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_16843
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Evaluating ML-Based Anomaly Detection Across Datasets of Varied Integrity: A Case Study
Pekar, Adrian
Jozsa, Richard
Machine Learning
Networking and Internet Architecture
Cybersecurity remains a critical challenge in the digital age, with network traffic flow anomaly detection being a key pivotal instrument in the fight against cyber threats. In this study, we address the prevalent issue of data integrity in network traffic datasets, which are instrumental in developing machine learning (ML) models for anomaly detection. We introduce two refined versions of the CICIDS-2017 dataset, NFS-2023-nTE and NFS-2023-TE, processed using NFStream to ensure methodologically sound flow expiration and labeling. Our research contrasts the performance of the Random Forest (RF) algorithm across the original CICIDS-2017, its refined counterparts WTMC-2021 and CRiSIS-2022, and our NFStream-generated datasets, in both binary and multi-class classification contexts. We observe that the RF model exhibits exceptional robustness, achieving consistent high-performance metrics irrespective of the underlying dataset quality, which prompts a critical discussion on the actual impact of data integrity on ML efficacy. Our study underscores the importance of continual refinement and methodological rigor in dataset generation for network security research. As the landscape of network threats evolves, so must the tools and techniques used to detect and analyze them.
title Evaluating ML-Based Anomaly Detection Across Datasets of Varied Integrity: A Case Study
topic Machine Learning
Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.16843