Anomaly Detection Using XGBoost Ensemble of Deep Neural Network Models

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) utilise deep learning techniques to identify intrusions with maximum accuracy and reduce false alarm rates. The feature extraction is also automated in these techniques. In this paper, an ensemble of different Deep Neural Network (DNN) models like MultiLayer Perceptron (MLP), BackPropagation Network (BPN) and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) are stacked to build a robust anomaly detection model. The performance of the ensemble model is analysed on different datasets, namely UNSW-NB15 and a campus generated dataset named VIT_SPARC20. Other types of traffic, namely unencrypted normal traffic, normal encrypted traffic, encrypted and unencrypted malicious traffic, are captured in the VIT_SPARC20 dataset. Encrypted normal and malicious traffic of VIT_SPARC20 is categorised by the deep learning models without decrypting its contents, thus preserving the confidentiality and integrity of the data transmitted. XGBoost integrates the results of each deep learning model to achieve higher accuracy. From experimental analysis, it is inferred that UNSW_ NB results in a maximal accuracy of 99.5%. The performance of VIT_SPARC20 in terms of accuracy, precision and recall are 99.4%. 98% and 97%, respectively.