Deep Q-learning intrusion detection system (DQ-IDS): A novel reinforcement learning approach for adaptive and self-learning cybersecurity

With the increasing sophistication of cyber threats, traditional Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) often fail to adapt to evolving attack patterns, leading to high false positive rates and inadequate detection of zero-day attacks. This study proposes the Deep Q-Learning Intrusion Detection System (DQ-IDS), a novel reinforcement learning (RL)-based approach designed to dynamically learn network attack behaviors and continuously enhance detection performance. Unlike conventional machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL)-based IDS models that depend on static, pre-trained classifiers, DQ-IDS employs Deep Q-Networks (DQN) with experience replay and adaptive ε-greedy exploration to autonomously classify benign and malicious network traffic. The integration of experience replay mitigates catastrophic forgetting, while adaptive exploration ensures an optimal trade-off between learning efficiency and threat detection. A reward-driven training mechanism reinforces correct classifications and penalizes errors, thereby reducing both false positive and false negative rates. Extensive empirical evaluations on real-world network datasets demonstrate that DQ-IDS achieves a detection accuracy of 97.18%, significantly outperforming conventional IDS solutions in both attack detection and computational efficiency. This work introduces a paradigm shift toward adaptive, self-learning cybersecurity systems capable of real-time, robust threat mitigation in dynamic network environments.