Cyber Data Anomaly Detection Using Autoencoder Neural Networks

Abstract

The Department of Defense requires a secure presence in the cyber domain to successfully execute its stated mission of deterring war and protecting the security of the United States. With potentially millions of logged network events occurring on defended networks daily, a limited staff of cyber analysts require the capability to identify novel network actions for security adjudication. The detection methodology proposed uses an autoencoder neural network optimized via design of experiments for the identification of anomalous network events. Once trained, each logged network event is analyzed by the neural network and assigned an outlier score. The network events with the largest outlier scores are anomalous and worthy of further review by cyber analysts. This neural network approach can operate in conjunction with alternate tools for outlier detection, enhancing the overall anomaly detection capability of cyber analysts.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 22, 2018
Accession Number
AD1056317

Entities

People

  • Spencer A Butt

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anomaly Detection
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Artificial Intelligence Software
  • Change Detection
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computational Science
  • Computer Languages
  • Computers
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data Mining
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Experimental Design
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Machine Learning
  • Neural Networks

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Neural Network Machine Learning.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Neural Networks
  • Cyber