The use of artificial immune systems in intrusion detection is an appealing concept for two reasons. Firstly, the human immune system provides the human body with a high level of protection from invading pathogens, in a robust, self-organised and distributed manner. Secondly, current techniques used in computer security are not able to cope with the dynamic and increasingly complex nature of computer systems and their security. It is hoped that biologically inspired approaches in this area, including the use of immune-based systems will be able to meet this challenge. Here we review the algorithms used, the development of the systems and the outcome of their implementation. We provide an introduction and analysis of the key developments within this field, in addition to making suggestions for future research.
The Human Immune System (HIS) works to protect a body from infection, illness, and disease. This system can inspire cybersecurity professionals to design an Artificial Immune System (AIS) based Intrusion Detection System (IDS). These biologically inspired algorithms using Self/Nonself and Danger Theory can directly augmentIDS designs and implementations. In this paper, we include an examination into the elements of design necessary for building an AIS-IDS framework and present an architecture to create such systems.
The use of artificial immune systems in intrusion detection is an appealing concept for two reasons. Firstly, the human immune system provides the human body with a high level of protection from invading pathogens, in a robust, self-organised and distributed manner. Secondly, current techniques used in computer security are not able to cope with the dynamic and increasingly complex nature of computer systems and their security. It is hoped that biologically inspired approaches in this area, including the use of immune-based systems will be able to meet this challenge. Here we collate the algor…
The immune system provides an ideal metaphor for anomaly detection in general and computer security in particular. Based on this idea, artificial immune systems have been used for a number of years for intrusion detection, unfortunately so far with little success. However, these previous systems were largely based on immunological theory from the 1970s and 1980s and over the last decade our understanding of immunological processes has vastly improved. In this paper we present two new immune inspired algorithms based on the latest immunological discoveries, such as the behaviour of Dendritic Ce…
Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS) are computer systems which monitor a network with the aim of discerning malicious from benign activity on that network. While a wide range of approaches have met varying levels of success, most IDSs rely on having access to a database of known attack signatures which are written by security experts. Nowadays, in order to solve problems with false positive alerts, correlation algorithms are used to add additional structure to sequences of IDS alerts. However, such techniques are of no help in discovering novel attacks or variations of known attacks, so…
Network intrusion detection is the problem of detecting unauthorised use of, or access to, computer systems over a network. Two broad approaches exist to tackle this problem: anomaly detection and misuse detection. An anomaly detection system is trained only on examples of normal connections, and thus has the potential to detect novel attacks. However, many anomaly detection systems simply report the anomalous activity, rather than analysing it further in order to report higher-level information that is of more use to a security officer. On the other hand, misuse detection systems recognise kn…
School Of Computer Science, University Of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学计算机科学学院）
In recent years computer systems have become increasingly complex and consequently the challenge of protecting these systems has become increasingly difficult. Various techniques have been implemented to counteract the misuse of computer systems in the form of firewalls, anti-virus software and intrusion detection systems. The complexity of networks and dynamic nature of computer systems leaves current methods with significant room for improvement. Computer scientists have recently drawn inspiration from mechanisms found in biological systems and, in the context of computer security, have focu…
Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NDIS) monitor a network with the aim of discerning malicious from benign activity on that network. While a wide range of approaches have met varying levels of success, most IDS's rely on having access to a database of known attack signatures which are written by security experts. Nowadays, in order to solve problems with false positive alters, correlation algorithms are used to add additional structure to sequences of IDS alerts. However, such techniques are of no help in discovering novel attacks or variations of known attacks, something the human immune s…
Faculty of Electronics and Computer, Malek-Ashtar University of Technology（马利克·阿什塔工业大学电子与计算机学院）；Department of Media Engineering, IRIB University（伊朗伊斯兰共和国广播电视台大学媒体工程系）
The Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA) as one of the emerging evolutionary algorithms is based on the behavior of the specific immune agents; known as Dendritic Cells (DCs). DCA has several potentially beneficial features for binary classification problems. In this paper, we aim at providing a new version of this immune-inspired mechanism acts as a semi-supervised classifier which can be a defensive shield in network intrusion detection problem. Till now, no strategy or idea has already been adopted on the GetAntigen() function on detection phase, but randomly sampling entails the DCA to provide u…
As one of the solutions to intrusion detection problems, Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) have shown their advantages. Unlike genetic algorithms, there is no one archetypal AIS, instead there are four major paradigms. Among them, the Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA) has produced promising results in various applications. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the potential for the DCA as a suitable candidate for intrusion detection problems. We review some of the commonly used AIS paradigms for intrusion detection problems and demonstrate the advantages of one particular algorithm, the DCA. In…
Network intrusion detection systems (NIDSs) have a role of identifying malicious activities by monitoring the behavior of networks. Due to the currently high volume of networks trafic in addition to the increased number of attacks and their dynamic properties, NIDSs have the challenge of improving their classification performance. Bio-Inspired Optimization Algorithms (BIOs) are used to automatically extract the the discrimination rules of normal or abnormal behavior to improve the classification accuracy and the detection ability of NIDS. A quantum vaccined immune clonal algorithm with the est…
Artificial Immune Systems have been successfully applied to a number of problem domains including fault tolerance and data mining, but have been shown to scale poorly when applied to computer intrusion detec- tion despite the fact that the biological immune system is a very effective anomaly detector. This may be because AIS algorithms have previously been based on the adaptive immune system and biologically-naive mod- els. This paper focuses on describing and testing a more complex and biologically-authentic AIS model, inspired by the interactions between the innate and adaptive immune system…
University College London（伦敦大学学院）；University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学）
The analysis of system calls is one method employed by anomaly detection systems to recognise malicious code execution. Similarities can be drawn between this process and the behaviour of certain cells belonging to the human immune system, and can be applied to construct an artificial immune system. A recently developed hypothesis in immunology, the Danger Theory, states that our immune system responds to the presence of intruders through sensing molecules belonging to those invaders, plus signals generated by the host indicating danger and damage. We propose the incorporation of this concept …
University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学）；University College London（伦敦大学学院）；HP Labs（惠普实验室）；King’s College London（伦敦国王学院）；University of the West of England（西英格兰大学）
We present ideas about creating a next generation Intrusion Detection System based on the latest immunological theories. The central challenge with computer security is determining the difference between normal and potentially harmful activity. For half a century, developers have protected their systems by coding rules that identify and block specific events. However, the nature of current and future threats in conjunction with ever larger IT systems urgently requires the development of automated and adaptive defensive tools. A promising solution is emerging in the form of Artificial Immune Sy…
School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学计算机科学学院）
Artificial immune systems have previously been applied to the problem of intrusion detection. The aim of this research is to develop an intrusion detection system based on the function of Dendritic Cells (DCs). DCs are antigen presenting cells and key to activation of the human immune system, behaviour which has been abstracted to form the Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA). In algorithmic terms, individual DCs perform multi-sensor data fusion, asynchronously correlating the the fused data signals with a secondary data stream. Aggregate output of a population of cells, is analysed and forms the ba…
School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学计算机科学学院）
Artificial immune systems, more specifically the negative selection algorithm, have previously been applied to intrusion detection. The aim of this research is to develop an intrusion detection system based on a novel concept in immunology, the Danger Theory. Dendritic Cells (DCs) are antigen presenting cells and key to the activation of the human signals from the host tissue and correlate these signals with proteins know as antigens. In algorithmic terms, individual DCs perform multi-sensor data fusion based on time-windows. The whole population of DCs asynchronously correlates the fused sign…
Due to their massive success in various domains, deep learning techniques are increasingly used to design network intrusion detection solutions that detect and mitigate unknown and known attacks with high accuracy detection rates and minimal feature engineering. However, it has been found that deep learning models are vulnerable to data instances that can mislead the model to make incorrect classification decisions so-called (adversarial examples). Such vulnerability allows attackers to target NIDSs by adding small crafty perturbations to the malicious traffic to evade detection and disrupt th…
School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学计算机科学学院）
As an immune inspired algorithm, the Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA) has been applied to a range of problems, particularly in the area of intrusion detection. Ideally, the intrusion detection should be performed in real-time, to continuously detect misuses as soon as they occur. Consequently, the analysis process performed by an intrusion detection system must operate in real-time or near-to real-time. The analysis process of the DCA is currently performed offline, therefore to improve the algorithm's performance we suggest the development of a real-time analysis component. The initial step of …
School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学计算机学院）；Hewlett Packard Labs（惠普实验室）
The Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA) is inspired by the function of the dendritic cells of the human immune system. In nature, dendritic cells are the intrusion detection agents of the human body, policing the tissue and organs for potential invaders in the form of pathogens. In this research, and abstract model of DC behaviour is developed and subsequently used to form an algorithm, the DCA. The abstraction process was facilitated through close collaboration with laboratory- based immunologists, who performed bespoke experiments, the results of which are used as an integral part of this algorit…
