Deep learning approaches for anomaly-based intrusion detection systems: A survey, taxonomy, and open issues

Abstract The massive growth of data that are transmitted through a variety of devices and communication protocols have raised serious security concerns, which have increased the importance of developing advanced intrusion detection systems (IDSs). Deep learning is an advanced branch of machine learning, composed of multiple layers of neurons that represent the learning process. Deep learning can cope with large-scale data and has shown success in different fields. Therefore, researchers have paid more attention to investigating deep learning for intrusion detection. This survey comprehensively reviews and compares the key previous deep learning-focused cybersecurity surveys. Through an extensive review, this survey provides a novel fine-grained taxonomy that categorizes the current state-of-the-art deep learning-based IDSs with respect to different facets, including input data, detection, deployment, and evaluation strategies. Each facet is further classified according to different criteria. This survey also compares and discusses the related experimental solutions proposed as deep learning-based IDSs. By analysing the experimental studies, this survey discusses the role of deep learning in intrusion detection, the impact of intrusion detection datasets, and the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approaches. The findings demonstrate that further effort is required to improve the current state-of-the art. Finally, open research challenges are identified, and future research directions for deep learning-based IDSs are recommended.