Machine and Deep Learning Approaches for IoT Attack Classification

In recent years, Internet of Things (IoT) traffic has increased dramatically and is expected to grow further in the next future. Because of their vulnerabilities, IoT devices are often the target of cyber-attacks with dramatic consequences. For this reason, there is a strong need for powerful tools to guarantee a good level of security in IoT networks. Machine and deep learning approaches promise good performance for such a complex task. In this work, we employ state-of-art traffic classifiers based on deep learning and assess their effectiveness in accomplishing IoT attack classification. We aim to recognize different attack classes and distinguish them from benign network traffic. In more detail, we utilize effective and unbiased input data that allow fast (i.e. "early") detection of anomalies and we compare performance with that of traditional (i.e. "post-mortem") machine learning classifiers. The experimental results highlight the need for advanced deep learning architectures fed with input data specifically tailored and designed for IoT attack classification. Furthermore, we perform an occlusion analysis to assess the influence on the performance of some network layer fields and the possible bias they may introduce.