Network intrusion detection based on deep learning model optimized with rule-based hybrid feature selection

Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) is often used to classify network traffic in an attempt to protect computer systems from various network attacks. A major component for building an efficient intrusion detection system is the preprocessing of network traffic and identification of essential features which is essential for building robust classifier. In this study, a NIDS based on deep learning model optimized with rule-based hybrid feature selection is proposed. The architecture is divided into three phases namely: hybrid feature selection, rule evaluation and detection. Several search methods and attribute evaluators were combined for features selection to enhance experimentation and comparison. The results obtained showed that the number of selected features will not affect the detection accuracy of the feature selection algorithms, but directly proportional to the performance of the base classifier. Results from the performance comparison proved that the proposed method outperforms other related methods with reduction of false alarm rate, high accuracy rate, reduced training and testing time of 1.2%, 98.8%, 7.17s and 3.11s, respectively. Finally, the simulation experiments on standard evaluation metrics showed that the proposed method is suitable for attack classification in NIDS.