DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks have become a pressing threat to the security and integrity of computer networks and information systems, which are indispensable infrastructures of modern times. The detection of DDoS attacks is a challenging issue before any mitigation measures can be taken. ML/DL (Machine Learning/Deep Learning) has been applied to the detection of DDoS attacks with satisfactory achievement. However, full-scale success is still beyond reach due to an inherent problem with ML/DL-based systems—the so-called Open Set Recognition (OSR) problem. This is a problem where an ML/DL-based system fails to deal with new instances not drawn from the distribution model of the training data. This problem is particularly profound in detecting DDoS attacks since DDoS attacks’ technology keeps evolving and has changing traffic characteristics. This study investigates the impact of the OSR problem on the detection of DDoS attacks. In response to this problem, we propose a new DDoS detection framework featuring Bi-Directional Long Short-Term Memory (BI-LSTM), a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and incremental learning. Unknown traffic captured by the GMM are subject to discrimination and labeling by traffic engineers, and then fed back to the framework as additional training samples. Using the data sets CIC-IDS2017 and CIC-DDoS2019 for training, testing, and evaluation, experiment results show that the proposed BI-LSTM-GMM can achieve recall, precision, and accuracy up to 94%. Experiments reveal that the proposed framework can be a promising solution to the detection of unknown DDoS attacks.

The Gannet Optimization Algorithm (GOA) has good performance, but there is still room for improvement in memory consumption and convergence. In this paper, an improved Gannet Optimization Algorithm is proposed to solve five engineering optimization problems. The compact strategy enables the GOA to save a large amount of memory, and the parallel communication strategy allows the algorithm to avoid falling into local optimal solutions. We improve the GOA through the combination of parallel strategy and compact strategy, and we name the improved algorithm Parallel Compact Gannet Optimization Algorithm (PCGOA). The performance study of the PCGOA on the CEC2013 benchmark demonstrates the advantages of our new method in various aspects. Finally, the results of the PCGOA on solving five engineering optimization problems show that the improved algorithm can find the global optimal solution more accurately.

DDoS attacks remain a persistent cybersecurity threat, blocking services to legitimate users and causing significant damage to reputation, finances, and potential customers. For the detection of DDoS attacks, machine learning techniques such as supervised learning have been extensively employed, but their effectiveness declines when the framework confronts patterns exterior to the dataset. In addition, DDoS attack schemes continue to improve, rendering conventional data model-based training ineffectual. We have developed a novelty open-set recognition framework for DDoS attack detection to overcome the challenges of traditional methods. Our framework is built on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) construction featuring geometrical metric (CNN-Geo), which utilizes deep learning techniques to enhance accuracy. In addition, we have integrated an incremental learning module that can efficiently incorporate novel unknown traffic identified by telecommunication experts through the monitoring process. This unique approach provides an effective solution for identifying and alleviating DDoS. The module continuously improves the model’s performance by incorporating new knowledge and adapting to new attack patterns. The proposed model can detect unknown DDoS attacks with a detection rate of over 99% on conventional attacks from CICIDS2017. The model’s accuracy is further enhanced by 99.8% toward unknown attacks with the open datasets CICDDoS2019.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) has emerged as a serious and challenging threat to computer networks and information systems’ security and integrity. Before any remedial measures can be implemented, DDoS assaults must first be detected. DDoS attacks can be identified and characterized with satisfactory achievement employing ML (Machine Learning) and DL (Deep Learning). However, new varieties of aggression arise as the technology for DDoS attacks keep evolving. This research explores the impact of a new incarnation of DDoS attack–adversarial DDoS attack. There are established works on ML-based DDoS detection and GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) based adversarial DDoS synthesis. We confirm these findings in our experiments. Experiments in this study involve the extension and application of the GAN, a machine learning framework with symmetric form having two contending neural networks. We synthesize adversarial DDoS attacks utilizing Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks featuring Gradient Penalty (GP-WGAN). Experiment results indicate that the synthesized traffic can traverse the detection systems such as k-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) and Random Forest (RF) without being identified. This observation is a sobering and pessimistic wake-up call, implying that countermeasures to adversarial DDoS attacks are urgently needed. To this problem, we propose a novel DDoS detection framework featuring GAN with Dual Discriminators (GANDD). The additional discriminator is designed to identify adversary DDoS traffic. The proposed GANDD can be an effective solution to adversarial DDoS attacks, as evidenced by the experimental results. We use adversarial DDoS traffic synthesized by GP-WGAN to train GANDD and validate it alongside three other DL technologies: DNN (Deep Neural Network), LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) and GAN. GANDD outperformed the other DL models, demonstrating its protection with a TPR of 84.3%. A more sophisticated test was also conducted to examine GANDD’s ability to handle unseen adversarial attacks. GANDD was evaluated with adversarial traffic not generated from its training data. GANDD still proved effective with a TPR around 71.3% compared to 7.4% of LSTM.

The internet, a cornerstone of modern life, has profound implications across personal, business, and society. However, its widespread use has posed challenges, especially concerning privacy and cybersecurity. Besides, the threats on the internet are increasing in terms of danger, intensity, and complexity. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have emerged as a common and dangerous cybersecurity threat capable of disabling the network systems of targeted organizations and services. Therefore, various security strategies, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS), are employed to protect against DDoS attacks. Enhancing the defensive capabilities of IDS systems through machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) technologies is a significant trend nowadays. However, despite notable successes, detecting DDoS attacks using ML and DL technologies still faces challenges, especially with Unknown DDoS Attacks. In this research, the primary goal is to address the unknown DDoS detection problem through efficient and advanced techniques. Our proposed method, CNN-RPL, integrates Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) with Reciprocal Points Learning (RPL), a novel Open-Set Recognition (OSR) technology. This model can effectively handle both known and unknown attacks. The CNN-RPL model demonstrates excellent results, achieving an accuracy exceeding 99.93% against known attacks in the CICIDS2017 dataset. Simultaneously, the model achieves a commendable average accuracy of up to 98.51% against unknown attacks in the CICDDoS2019 dataset. In particular, the CNN-RPL model simplifies the architecture of the deep neural network by significantly reducing the number of training parameters without compromising defense capabilities. Therefore, our proposed method is genuinely efficient, particularly flexible, and lightweight compared to traditional methods. This can equip organizations and businesses with a highly applicable yet powerful security approach against the evolving complexities in the network space.

The network system has become an indispensable component of modern infrastructure. DDoS attacks and their variants remain a potential and persistent cybersecurity threat. DDoS attacks block services to legitimate users by incorporating large amounts of malicious traffic in a short period or depleting system resources through methods specific to each client, causing the victim to lose reputation, finances, and potential customers. With the advancement and maturation of artificial intelligence technology, machine learning and deep learning are widely used to detect DDoS attacks with significant success. However, traditional supervised machine learning must depend on the categorized training sets, so the recognition rate plummets when the model encounters patterns outside the dataset. In addition, DDoS attack techniques continue to evolve, rendering training based on conventional data models unable to meet contemporary requirements. Since closed-set classifiers have excellent performance in cybersecurity and are quite mature, this study will investigate the identification of open-set recognition issues where the attack pattern does not accommodate the distribution learned by the model. This research proposes a framework that uses reconstruction error and distributes hidden layer characteristics to detect unknown DDoS attacks. This study will employ deep hierarchical reconstruction nets (DHRNet) architecture and reimplement it with a 1D integrated neural network employing loss function combined with spatial location constraint prototype loss (SLCPL) as a solution for open-set risks. At the output, a one-class SVM (one-class support vector machine) based on a random gradient descent approximation is used to recognize the unknown patterns in the subsequent stage. The model achieves an impressive detection rate of more than 99% in testing. Furthermore, the incremental learning module utilizing unknown traffic labeled by telecom technicians during tracking has enhanced the model’s performance by 99.8% against unknown threats based on the CICIDS2017 Friday open dataset.