Optimized weighted ensemble classifier for intrusion detection application

Computer and communication systems become the foundations of modern life. With the advances in the Internet, usage of these systems increases and intrusions against these systems increases too. Therefore, finding and preventing intrusions against these systems becomes more and more important. To protect these systems, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) are implemented. In recent years, machine learning and optimization techniques are increasingly used in IDS. New methods are implemented using KDD99 and its derivative NSL-KDD datasets based on intelligent IDS systems in this thesis study. First, a detailed review is made on studies that uses above mentioned datasets, and according to this review, detailed statistics are derived on usage of these datasets. Next, two different methods are proposed for IDS. These methods are based on principles of classifier ensemble and hybrid IDS. In the first method, genetic algorithms (GA) are used for feature selection (an important part for classification) and ensemble weight finding. The proposed method is named as Genetic Algorithms based Feature Selection and Weights Finding (GA-FS-WF). In the second method, hybrid ensemble classifier subject re-visited again. In this method, convex optimization techniques are used for finding weights for ensemble classifiers. Proposed method models weights finding in ensemble as a mathematical objective function and solves it as an optimization problem. In both proposed methods, full dataset NSL-KDD is used. Success of proposed methods are measured with classifier performance metrics and compared with similar methods in the literature.