Work

Optimizing IoT Intrusion Detection—A Graph Neural Network Approach with Attribute-Based Graph Construction

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The inherent complexity and heterogeneity of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem present significant challenges for developing effective intrusion detection systems. While graph deep-learning-based methods have shown promise in cybersecurity applications, existing approaches primarily construct graphs based on physical network connections, which may not effectively capture node representations. This paper proposes a Top-K Similarity Graph Framework (TKSGF) for IoT network intrusion detection. Instead of relying on physical links, the TKSGF constructs graphs based on Top-K attribute similarity, ensuring a more meaningful representation of node relationships. We employ GraphSAGE as the Graph Neural Network (GNN) model to effectively capture node representations while maintaining scalability. Furthermore, we conducted extensive experiments to analyze the impact of graph directionality (directed vs. undirected), different K values, and various GNN architectures and configurations on detection performance. Evaluations on binary and multi-class classification tasks using the NF-ToN IoT and NF-BoT IoT datasets from the Machine-Learning-Based Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) benchmark demonstrated that our proposed framework consistently outperformed traditional machine learning methods and existing graph-based approaches, achieving superior classification accuracy and robustness.

Source: Information

DOI: 10.3390/info16060499

Authors: Tien Ngo, Jiao Yin, Yong-Feng Ge, Hua Wang

Institution: Victoria University

Language: English

Topic: Network Security and Intrusion Detection

Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,930