Abstract
The demand for intrusion detection systems (IDSs) that can promptly identify both known and new types of attacks is on the rise due to the rapid expansion of cyber threats and the consequent increase in network traffic. The utilization of machine learning techniques to autonomously analyze the behavior of network packets and classify them as normal or malicious is a promising way to address this issue. The objective of this investigation is to assess the suitability of a variety of machine learning algorithms for the resolution of network security issues by employing network data analysis as an illustration. This investigation assesses the efficacy of machine learning models in detecting network intrusions using the UNSW-NB15 dataset. This study’s primary objective is to assess the effectiveness of various machine learning models, including Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), XGBoost, LightGBM, and Logistic Regression, in network security applications. According to the analysis, all models exhibited high classification accuracy; however, the LightGBM model attained the most remarkable results. This model exhibited the highest values of Accuracy (95.86%), Precision (96.02%), and F1-measure (96.99%), confirming its capacity to effectively manage complex and heterogeneous data. Overall, the study underscores the significance of selecting the most appropriate model based on the security system’s objectives and the specifics of the data.