Adversarial Augmentation and Active Sampling for Robust Cyber Anomaly Detection

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Benabderrahmane, Sidahmed, Rahwan, Talal
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866908521235218432
author Benabderrahmane, Sidahmed
Rahwan, Talal
author_facet Benabderrahmane, Sidahmed
Rahwan, Talal
contents Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) present a considerable challenge to cybersecurity due to their stealthy, long-duration nature. Traditional supervised learning methods typically require large amounts of labeled data, which is often scarce in real-world scenarios. This paper introduces a novel approach that combines AutoEncoders for anomaly detection with active learning to iteratively enhance APT detection. By selectively querying an oracle for labels on uncertain or ambiguous samples, our method reduces labeling costs while improving detection accuracy, enabling the model to effectively learn with minimal data and reduce reliance on extensive manual labeling. We present a comprehensive formulation of the Attention Adversarial Dual AutoEncoder-based anomaly detection framework and demonstrate how the active learning loop progressively enhances the model's performance. The framework is evaluated on real-world, imbalanced provenance trace data from the DARPA Transparent Computing program, where APT-like attacks account for just 0.004\% of the data. The datasets, which cover multiple operating systems including Android, Linux, BSD, and Windows, are tested in two attack scenarios. The results show substantial improvements in detection rates during active learning, outperforming existing methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_04999
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Adversarial Augmentation and Active Sampling for Robust Cyber Anomaly Detection
Benabderrahmane, Sidahmed
Rahwan, Talal
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Machine Learning
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) present a considerable challenge to cybersecurity due to their stealthy, long-duration nature. Traditional supervised learning methods typically require large amounts of labeled data, which is often scarce in real-world scenarios. This paper introduces a novel approach that combines AutoEncoders for anomaly detection with active learning to iteratively enhance APT detection. By selectively querying an oracle for labels on uncertain or ambiguous samples, our method reduces labeling costs while improving detection accuracy, enabling the model to effectively learn with minimal data and reduce reliance on extensive manual labeling. We present a comprehensive formulation of the Attention Adversarial Dual AutoEncoder-based anomaly detection framework and demonstrate how the active learning loop progressively enhances the model's performance. The framework is evaluated on real-world, imbalanced provenance trace data from the DARPA Transparent Computing program, where APT-like attacks account for just 0.004\% of the data. The datasets, which cover multiple operating systems including Android, Linux, BSD, and Windows, are tested in two attack scenarios. The results show substantial improvements in detection rates during active learning, outperforming existing methods.
title Adversarial Augmentation and Active Sampling for Robust Cyber Anomaly Detection
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04999