Mind the Gap: Missing Cyber Threat Coverage in NIDS Datasets for the Energy Sector

Fuente: arXiv
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tory, Adrita Rahman, Hasan, Khondokar Fida, Rahman, Md Saifur, Koroniotis, Nickolaos, Moni, Mohammad Ali
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1866911247345123328
author Tory, Adrita Rahman
Hasan, Khondokar Fida
Rahman, Md Saifur
Koroniotis, Nickolaos
Moni, Mohammad Ali
author_facet Tory, Adrita Rahman
Hasan, Khondokar Fida
Rahman, Md Saifur
Koroniotis, Nickolaos
Moni, Mohammad Ali
contents Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) developed using publicly available datasets predominantly focus on enterprise environments, raising concerns about their effectiveness for converged Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) in energy infrastructures. This study evaluates the representativeness of five widely used datasets: CIC-IDS2017, SWaT, WADI, Sherlock, and CIC-Modbus2023 against network-detectable MITRE ATT&CK techniques extracted from documented energy sector incidents. Using a structured five-step analytical approach, this article successfully developed and performed a gap analysis that identified 94 network observable techniques from an initial pool of 274 ATT&CK techniques. Sherlock dataset exhibited the highest mean coverage (0.56), followed closely by CIC-IDS2017 (0.55), while SWaT and WADI recorded the lowest scores (0.38). Combining CIC-IDS2017, Sherlock, and CIC-Modbus2023 achieved an aggregate coverage of 92%, highlighting their complementary strengths. The analysis identifies critical gaps, particularly in lateral movement and industrial protocol manipulation, providing a clear pathway for dataset enhancement and more robust NIDS evaluation in hybrid IT/OT energy environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_00360
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mind the Gap: Missing Cyber Threat Coverage in NIDS Datasets for the Energy Sector
Tory, Adrita Rahman
Hasan, Khondokar Fida
Rahman, Md Saifur
Koroniotis, Nickolaos
Moni, Mohammad Ali
Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) developed using publicly available datasets predominantly focus on enterprise environments, raising concerns about their effectiveness for converged Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) in energy infrastructures. This study evaluates the representativeness of five widely used datasets: CIC-IDS2017, SWaT, WADI, Sherlock, and CIC-Modbus2023 against network-detectable MITRE ATT&CK techniques extracted from documented energy sector incidents. Using a structured five-step analytical approach, this article successfully developed and performed a gap analysis that identified 94 network observable techniques from an initial pool of 274 ATT&CK techniques. Sherlock dataset exhibited the highest mean coverage (0.56), followed closely by CIC-IDS2017 (0.55), while SWaT and WADI recorded the lowest scores (0.38). Combining CIC-IDS2017, Sherlock, and CIC-Modbus2023 achieved an aggregate coverage of 92%, highlighting their complementary strengths. The analysis identifies critical gaps, particularly in lateral movement and industrial protocol manipulation, providing a clear pathway for dataset enhancement and more robust NIDS evaluation in hybrid IT/OT energy environments.
title Mind the Gap: Missing Cyber Threat Coverage in NIDS Datasets for the Energy Sector
topic Cryptography and Security
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.00360