A recurrent neural network for network-based intrusion detection

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) play a vital role in monitoring and preventing unauthorized access within critical network infrastructures. However, current IDS approaches often suffer from limitations in detection accuracy, scalability, and adaptability to evolving threats. To address these challenges, this study proposes an optimized Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Network (LSTM-RNN) model for network-based intrusion detection. The model is specifically designed to capture temporal dependencies in sequential network traffic data, enabling accurate classification of benign and malicious activity while maintaining computational efficiency. The proposed model underwent rigorous validation to assess both its detection accuracy and generalizability. This was achieved by utilizing two distinct datasets that encompass realistic network traffic and a wide array of attack scenarios, including Denial of Service (DoS), Probe, User-to-Root (U2R), and Remote-to-Local (R2L) intrusions. The performance of the model is compared with several other recent models. The proposed model achieved high classification results among all the compared models, with an accuracy of 99.94%, precision of 99.98%, recall of 99.93%, and an F1-score of 99.95%. These outstanding results underscore the model’s robust capability to accurately identify and flag malicious activities within complex network environments. The model’s generalization power was similarly affirmed on a second independent dataset. The model maintained strong performance with an accuracy of 99.42%, precision of 99.20%, recall of 99.69%, and an F1-score of 99.45%. The successful demonstration of both high detection accuracy and strong generalization capability highlights the practical utility and inherent reliability of our proposed model for real-world threat detection.