Malware poses a significant threat to global cy-bersecurity, with machine learning emerging as the primary method for its detection and analysis. However, the opaque nature of machine learning s decision-making process of-ten leads to confusion among stakeholders, undermining their confidence in the detection outcomes. To enhance the trustworthiness of malware detection, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is employed to offer transparent and comprehensible explanations of the detection mechanisms, which enable stakeholders to gain a deeper understanding of detection mechanisms and assist in developing defensive strategies. Despite the recent XAI advancements, several challenges remain unaddressed. In this paper, we explore the specific obstacles encountered in applying XAI to malware detection and analysis, aiming to provide a road map for future research in this critical domain.

Many studies have been conducted to detect various malicious activities in cyberspace using classifiers built by machine learning. However, it is natural for any classifier to make mistakes, and hence, human verification is necessary. One method to address this issue is eXplainable AI (XAI), which provides a reason for the classification result. However, when the number of classification results to be verified is large, it is not realistic to check the output of the XAI for all cases. In addition, it is sometimes difficult to interpret the output of XAI. In this study, we propose a machine learning model called classification verifier that verifies the classification results by using the output of XAI as a feature and raises objections when there is doubt about the reliability of the classification results. The results of experiments on malicious website detection and malware detection show that the proposed classification verifier can efficiently identify misclassified malicious activities.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increasingly been used to enhance threat intelligence and cyber security measures for organizations. Generative AI is a form of AI that creates new data without relying on existing data or expert knowledge. This technology provides decision support systems with the ability to automatically and quickly identify threats posed by hackers or malicious actors by taking into account various sources and data points. In addition, generative AI can help identify vulnerabilities within an organization s infrastructure, further reducing the potential for a successful attack. This technology is especially well-suited for security operations centers (SOCs), which require rapid identification of threats and defense measures. By incorporating interesting and valuable data points that previously would have been missed, generative AI can provide organizations with an additional layer of defense against increasingly sophisticated attacks.

AI systems face potential hardware security threats. Existing AI systems generally use the heterogeneous architecture of CPU + Intelligent Accelerator, with PCIe bus for communication between them. Security mechanisms are implemented on CPUs based on the hardware security isolation architecture. But the conventional hardware security isolation architecture does not include the intelligent accelerator on the PCIe bus. Therefore, from the perspective of hardware security, data offloaded to the intelligent accelerator face great security risks. In order to effectively integrate intelligent accelerator into the CPU’s security mechanism, a novel hardware security isolation architecture is presented in this paper. The PCIe protocol is extended to be security-aware by adding security information packaging and unpacking logic in the PCIe controller. The hardware resources on the intelligent accelerator are isolated in fine-grained. The resources classified into the secure world can only be controlled and used by the software of CPU’s trusted execution environment. Based on the above hardware security isolation architecture, a security isolation spiking convolutional neural network accelerator is designed and implemented in this paper. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed security isolation architecture has no overhead on the bandwidth and latency of the PCIe controller. The architecture does not affect the performance of the entire hardware computing process from CPU data offloading, intelligent accelerator computing, to data returning to CPU. With low hardware overhead, this security isolation architecture achieves effective isolation and protection of input data, model, and output data. And this architecture can effectively integrate hardware resources of intelligent accelerator into CPU’s security isolation mechanism.

In this work, we present a comprehensive survey on applications of the most recent transformer architecture based on attention in information security. Our review reveals three primary areas of application: Intrusion detection, Anomaly Detection and Malware Detection. We have presented an overview of attention-based mechanisms and their application in each cybersecurity use case, and discussed open grounds for future trends in Artificial Intelligence enabled information security.

Right to education is a basic need of every child and every society across the globe. Ever since the internet revolution and technological upgradation takes place, education system starts evolving from traditional way to smarter way. Covid-19 and industrial revolution has made smart education a global business that is now even penetrating to rural footprints of remote locations. Use of smart devices, IoT based communications and AI techniques have increased the cyberattack surface over the smart education system. Moreover, lack of cyber awareness and absence of essential cyber sanity checks has exposed the vulnerability in smart education system. A study of technology evolution of education to smart education and its penetration across the globe, details of smart education ecosystem, role of various stakeholders are discussed in this paper. It also covers most trending cyber-attacks, history of reported cyber-attacks in smart education sector. Further, in order to make smart educational cyber space more secure, proactive preventive measures and cyber sanity actions to mitigate such attacks are also discussed.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increasingly been used to enhance threat intelligence and cyber security measures for organizations. Generative AI is a form of AI that creates new data without relying on existing data or expert knowledge. This technology provides decision support systems with the ability to automatically and quickly identify threats posed by hackers or malicious actors by taking into account various sources and data points. In addition, generative AI can help identify vulnerabilities within an organization s infrastructure, further reducing the potential for a successful attack. This technology is especially well-suited for security operations centers (SOCs), which require rapid identification of threats and defense measures. By incorporating interesting and valuable data points that previously would have been missed, generative AI can provide organizations with an additional layer of defense against increasingly sophisticated attacks.

In recent years, machine learning technology has been extensively utilized, leading to increased attention to the security of AI systems. In the field of image recognition, an attack technique called clean-label backdoor attack has been widely studied, and it is more difficult to detect than general backdoor attacks because data labels do not change when tampering with poisoning data during model training. However, there remains a lack of research on malware detection systems. Some of the current work is under the white-box assumption that requires knowledge of machine learning-based models which can be advantageous for attackers. In this study, we focus on clean-label backdoor attacks in malware detection systems and propose a new clean-label backdoor attack under the black-box assumption that does not require knowledge of machine learning-based models, which is riskier. The experimental evaluation of the proposed attack method shows that the attack success rate is up to 80.50\% when the poisoning rate is 14.00\%, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed attack method. In addition, we experimentally evaluated the effectiveness of the dimensionality reduction techniques in preventing clean-label backdoor attacks, and showed that it can reduce the attack success rate by 76.00\%.

Security vulnerabilities are weaknesses of software due for instance to design flaws or implementation bugs that can be exploited and lead to potentially devastating security breaches. Traditionally, static code analysis is recognized as effective in the detection of software security vulnerabilities but at the expense of a high human effort required for checking a large number of produced false positive cases. Deep-learning methods have been recently proposed to overcome such a limitation of static code analysis and detect the vulnerable code by using vulnerability-related patterns learned from large source code datasets. However, the use of these methods for localizing the causes of the vulnerability in the source code, i.e., localize the statements that contain the bugs, has not been extensively explored. In this work, we experiment the use of deep-learning and explainability methods for detecting and localizing vulnerability-related statements in code fragments (named snippets). We aim at understanding if the code features adopted by deep-learning methods to identify vulnerable code snippets can also support the developers in debugging the code, thus localizing the vulnerability’s cause Our work shows that deep-learning methods can be effective in detecting the vulnerable code snippets, under certain conditions, but the code features that such methods use can only partially face the actual causes of the vulnerabilities in the code.CCS Concepts• Security and privacy \rightarrow Vulnerability management; Systems security; Malware and its mitigation; \cdot Software and its engineering \rightarrow Software testing and debugging.

Healthcare systems have recently utilized the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) to assist intelligent data collection and decision-making. However, the volume of malicious threats, particularly new variants of malware attacks to the connected medical devices and their connected system, has risen significantly in recent years, which poses a critical threat to patients’ confidential data and the safety of the healthcare systems. To address the high complexity of conventional software-based detection techniques, Hardware-supported Malware Detection (HMD) has proved to be efficient for detecting malware at the processors’ micro-architecture level with the aid of Machine Learning (ML) techniques applied to Hardware Performance Counter (HPC) data. In this work, we examine the suitability of various standard ML classifiers for zero-day malware detection on new data streams in the real-world operation of IoMT devices and demonstrate that such methods are not capable of detecting unknown malware signatures with a high detection rate. In response, we propose a hybrid and adaptive image-based framework based on Deep Learning and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) for online hardware-assisted zero-day malware detection in IoMT devices. Our proposed method dynamically selects the best DNN-based malware detector at run-time customized for each device from a pool of highly efficient models continuously trained on all stream data. It first converts tabular hardware-based data (HPC events) into small-size images and then leverages a transfer learning technique to retrain and enhance the Deep Neural Network (DNN) based model’s performance for unknown malware detection. Multiple DNN models are trained on various stream data continuously to form an inclusive model pool. Next, a DRL-based agent constructed with two Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs) is trained (one acts as an Actor and another acts as a Critic) to align the decision of selecting the most optimal DNN model for highly accurate zero-day malware detection at run-time using a limited number of hardware events. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed AI-enabled method achieves 99\% detection rate in both F1-score and AUC, with only 0.01\% false positive rate and 1\% false negative rate.

In the evolving landscape of Internet of Things (IoT) security, the need for continuous adaptation of defenses is critical. Class Incremental Learning (CIL) can provide a viable solution by enabling Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) models to ( i) learn and adapt to new attack types (0-day attacks), ( ii) retain their ability to detect known threats, (iii) safeguard computational efficiency (i.e. no full re-training). In IoT security, where novel attacks frequently emerge, CIL offers an effective tool to enhance Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and secure network environments. In this study, we explore how CIL approaches empower DL-based IDS in IoT networks, using the publicly-available IoT-23 dataset. Our evaluation focuses on two essential aspects of an IDS: ( a) attack classification and ( b) misuse detection. A thorough comparison against a fully-retrained IDS, namely starting from scratch, is carried out. Finally, we place emphasis on interpreting the predictions made by incremental IDS models through eXplainable AI (XAI) tools, offering insights into potential avenues for improvement.

Automated Internet of Things (IoT) devices generate a considerable amount of data continuously. However, an IoT network can be vulnerable to botnet attacks, where a group of IoT devices can be infected by malware and form a botnet. Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms have been introduced to detect and resist such botnet attacks in IoT networks. However, most of the existing Deep Learning-based algorithms are designed and implemented in a centralized manner. Therefore, these approaches can be sub-optimal in detecting zero-day botnet attacks against a group of IoT devices. Besides, a centralized AI approach requires sharing of data traces from the IoT devices for training purposes, which jeopardizes user privacy. To tackle these issues in this paper, we propose a federated learning based framework for a zero-day botnet attack detection model, where a new aggregation algorithm for the IoT devices is developed so that a better model aggregation can be achieved without compromising user privacy. Evaluations are conducted on an open dataset, i.e., the N-BaIoT. The evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed learning framework with the new aggregation algorithm outperforms the existing baseline aggregation algorithms in federated learning for zero-day botnet attack detection in IoT networks.

Significant progress has been made towards developing Deep Learning (DL) in Artificial Intelligence (AI) models that can make independent decisions. However, this progress has also highlighted the emergence of malicious entities that aim to manipulate the outcomes generated by these models. Due to increasing complexity, this is a concerning issue in various fields, such as medical image classification, autonomous vehicle systems, malware detection, and criminal justice. Recent research advancements have highlighted the vulnerability of these classifiers to both conventional and adversarial assaults, which may skew their results in both the training and testing stages. The Systematic Literature Review (SLR) aims to analyse traditional and adversarial attacks comprehensively. It evaluates 45 published works from 2017 to 2023 to better understand adversarial attacks, including their impact, causes, and standard mitigation approaches.

Malware, or software designed with harmful intent, is an ever-evolving threat that can have drastic effects on both individuals and institutions. Neural network malware classification systems are key tools for combating these threats but are vulnerable to adversarial machine learning attacks. These attacks perturb input data to cause misclassification, bypassing protective systems. Existing defenses often rely on enhancing the training process, thereby increasing the model’s robustness to these perturbations, which is quantified using verification. While training improvements are necessary, we propose focusing on the verification process used to evaluate improvements to training. As such, we present a case study that evaluates a novel verification domain that will help to ensure tangible safeguards against adversaries and provide a more reliable means of evaluating the robustness and effectiveness of anti-malware systems. To do so, we describe malware classification and two types of common malware datasets (feature and image datasets), demonstrate the certified robustness accuracy of malware classifiers using the Neural Network Verification (NNV) and Neural Network Enumeration (nnenum) tools1, and outline the challenges and future considerations necessary for the improvement and refinement of the verification of malware classification. By evaluating this novel domain as a case study, we hope to increase its visibility, encourage further research and scrutiny, and ultimately enhance the resilience of digital systems against malicious attacks.

Mobile malware is a malicious code specifically designed to target mobile devices to perform multiple types of fraud. The number of attacks reported each day is increasing constantly and is causing an impact not only at the end-user level but also at the network operator level. Malware like FluBot contributes to identity theft and data loss but also enables remote Command & Control (C2) operations, which can instrument infected devices to conduct Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Current mobile device-installed solutions are not effective, as the end user can ignore security warnings or install malicious software. This article designs and evaluates MONDEO-Tactics5G - a multistage botnet detection mechanism that does not require software installation on end-user devices, together with tactics for 5G network operators to manage infected devices. We conducted an evaluation that demonstrates high accuracy in detecting FluBot malware, and in the different adaptation strategies to reduce the risk of DDoS while minimising the impact on the clients satisfaction by avoiding disrupting established sessions.

Cyber threats have been a major issue in the cyber security domain. Every hacker follows a series of cyber-attack stages known as cyber kill chain stages. Each stage has its norms and limitations to be deployed. For a decade, researchers have focused on detecting these attacks. Merely watcher tools are not optimal solutions anymore. Everything is becoming autonomous in the computer science field. This leads to the idea of an Autonomous Cyber Resilience Defense algorithm design in this work. Resilience has two aspects: Response and Recovery. Response requires some actions to be performed to mitigate attacks. Recovery is patching the flawed code or back door vulnerability. Both aspects were performed by human assistance in the cybersecurity defense field. This work aims to develop an algorithm based on Reinforcement Learning (RL) with a Convoluted Neural Network (CNN), far nearer to the human learning process for malware images. RL learns through a reward mechanism against every performed attack. Every action has some kind of output that can be classified into positive or negative rewards. To enhance its thinking process Markov Decision Process (MDP) will be mitigated with this RL approach. RL impact and induction measures for malware images were measured and performed to get optimal results. Based on the Malimg Image malware, dataset successful automation actions are received. The proposed work has shown 98\% accuracy in the classification, detection, and autonomous resilience actions deployment.

Cybersecurity is an increasingly critical aspect of modern society, with cyber attacks becoming more sophisticated and frequent. Artificial intelligence (AI) and neural network models have emerged as promising tools for improving cyber defense. This paper explores the potential of AI and neural network models in cybersecurity, focusing on their applications in intrusion detection, malware detection, and vulnerability analysis. Intruder detection, or "intrusion detection," is the process of identifying Invasion of Privacy to a computer system. AI-based security systems that can spot intrusions (IDS) use AI-powered packet-level network traffic analysis and intrusion detection patterns to signify an assault. Neural network models can also be used to improve IDS accuracy by modeling the behavior of legitimate users and detecting anomalies. Malware detection involves identifying malicious software on a computer system. AI-based malware machine-learning algorithms are used by detecting systems to assess the behavior of software and recognize patterns that indicate malicious activity. Neural network models can also serve to hone the precision of malware identification by modeling the behavior of known malware and identifying new variants. Vulnerability analysis involves identifying weaknesses in a computer system that could be exploited by attackers. AI-based vulnerability analysis systems use machine learning algorithms to analyze system configurations and identify potential vulnerabilities. Neural network models can also be used to improve the accuracy of vulnerability analysis by modeling the behavior of known vulnerabilities and identifying new ones. Overall, AI and neural network models have significant potential in cybersecurity. By improving intrusion detection, malware detection, and vulnerability analysis, they can help organizations better defend against cyber attacks. However, these technologies also present challenges, including a lack of understanding of the importance of data in machine learning and the potential for attackers to use AI themselves. As such, careful consideration is necessary when implementing AI and neural network models in cybersecurity.

Cyber security is a critical problem that causes data breaches, identity theft, and harm to millions of people and businesses. As technology evolves, new security threats emerge as a result of a dearth of cyber security specialists equipped with up-to-date information. It is hard for security firms to prevent cyber-attacks without the cooperation of senior professionals. However, by depending on artificial intelligence to combat cyber-attacks, the strain on specialists can be lessened. as the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) can improve Machine Learning (ML) approaches that can mine data to detect the sources of cyberattacks or perhaps prevent them as an AI method, it enables and facilitates malware detection by utilizing data from prior cyber-attacks in a variety of methods, including behavior analysis, risk assessment, bot blocking, endpoint protection, and security task automation. However, deploying AI may present new threats, therefore cyber security experts must establish a balance between risk and benefit. While AI models can aid cybersecurity experts in making decisions and forming conclusions, they will never be able to make all cybersecurity decisions and judgments.

The increasing prevalence of cyber threats necessitates the exploration of cybersecurity challenges in sustainable operating systems. This research paper addresses these challenges by examining the dynamic landscape of cyber threats and the modifications required in operating systems to ensure robust security measures. Through the classification of these threats, the diverse nature of attacks faced by operating systems is revealed, highlighting the need for proactive security measures. Furthermore, the study investigates current cyber security solutions and prevention mechanisms employed to mitigate these threats. It also explores the modifications and challenges that operating systems must undergo in response to cybersecurity crimes, emphasizing the significance of proactive measures to address vulnerabilities exploited by cybercriminals.

This paper focuses on the challenges and issues of detecting malware in to-day s world where cyberattacks continue to grow in number and complexity. The paper reviews current trends and technologies in malware detection and the limitations of existing detection methods such as signaturebased detection and heuristic analysis. The emergence of new types of malware, such as file-less malware, is also discussed, along with the need for real-time detection and response. The research methodology used in this paper is presented, which includes a literature review of recent papers on the topic, keyword searches, and analysis and representation methods used in each study. In this paper, the authors aim to address the key issues and challenges in detecting malware today, the current trends and technologies in malware detection, and the limitations of existing methods. They also explore emerging threats and trends in malware attacks and highlight future directions for research and development in the field. To achieve this, the authors use a research methodology that involves a literature review of recent papers related to the topic. They focus on detecting and analyzing methods, as well as representation and ex-traction methods used in each study. Finally, they classify the literature re-view, and through reading and criticism, highlight future trends and problems in the field of malware detection.

With the continuous improvement of the current level of information technology, the malicious software produced by attackers is also becoming more complex. It s difficult for computer users to protect themselves against malicious software attacks. Malicious software can steal the user s privacy, damage the user s computer system, and often cause serious consequences and huge economic losses to the user or the organization. Hence, this research study presents a novel deep learning-based malware detection scheme considering packers and encryption. The proposed model has 2 aspects of innovations: (1) Generation steps of the packer malware is analyzed. Packing involves adding code to the program to be protected, and original program is compressed and encrypted during the packing process. By understanding this step, the analysis of the software will be efficient. (2) The deep learning based detection model is designed. Through the experiment compared with the latest methods, the performance is proven to be efficient.

Malware detection constitutes a fundamental step in safe and secure computational systems, including industrial systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). Modern malware detection is based on machine learning methods that classify software samples as malware or benign, based on features that are extracted from the samples through static and/or dynamic analysis. State-of-the-art malware detection systems employ Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) whose accuracy increases as more data are analyzed and exploited. However, organizations also have significant privacy constraints and concerns which limit the data that they share with centralized security providers or other organizations, despite the malware detection accuracy improvements that can be achieved with the aggregated data. In this paper we investigate the effectiveness of federated learning (FL) methods for developing and distributing aggregated DNNs among autonomous interconnected organizations. We analyze a solution where multiple organizations use independent malware analysis platforms as part of their Security Operations Centers (SOCs) and train their own local DNN model on their own private data. Exploiting cross-silo FL, we combine these DNNs into a global one which is then distributed to all organizations, achieving the distribution of combined malware detection models using data from multiple sources without sample or feature sharing. We evaluate the approach using the EMBER benchmark dataset and demonstrate that our approach effectively reaches the same accuracy as the non-federated centralized DNN model, which is above 93\%.

IBMD(Intelligent Behavior-Based Malware Detection) aims to detect and mitigate malicious activities in cloud computing environments by analyzing the behavior of cloud resources, such as virtual machines, containers, and applications.The system uses different machine learning methods like deep learning and artificial neural networks, to analyze the behavior of cloud resources and detect anomalies that may indicate malicious activity. The IBMD system can also monitor and accumulate the data from various resources, such as network traffic and system logs, to provide a comprehensive view of the behavior of cloud resources. IBMD is designed to operate in a cloud computing environment, taking advantage of the scalability and flexibility of the cloud to detect malware and respond to security incidents. The system can also be integrated with existing security tools and services, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, to provide a comprehensive security solution for cloud computing environments.

In today s digital landscape, the task of identifying various types of malicious files has become progressively challenging. Modern malware exhibits increasing sophistication, often evading conventional anti-malware solutions. The scarcity of data on distinct and novel malware strains further complicates effective detection. In response, this research presents an innovative approach to malware detection, specifically targeting multiple distinct categories of malicious software. In the initial stage, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is performed and achieved a remarkable accuracy rate of 95.39\%. Our methodology revolves around leveraging features commonly accessible from user-uploaded files, aligning with the contextual behavior of typical users seeking to identify malignancy. This underscores the efficacy of the unique featurebased detection strategy and its potential to enhance contemporary malware identification methodologies. The outcomes achieved attest to the significance of addressing emerging malware threats through inventive analytical paradigms.

Malwares have been being a major security threats to enterprises, government organizations and end-users. Beside traditional malwares, such as viruses, worms and trojans, new types of malwares, such as botnets, ransomwares, IoT malwares and crypto-jackings are released daily. To cope with malware threats, several measures for monitoring, detecting and preventing malwares have been developed and deployed in practice, such as signature-based detection, static and dynamic file analysis. This paper proposes 2 malware detection models based on statistics and machine learning using opcode n-grams. The proposed models aim at achieving high detection accuracy as well as reducing the amount of time for training and detection. Experimental results show that our proposed models give better performance measures than previous proposals. Specifically, the proposed statistics-based model is very fast and it achieves a high detection accuracy of 92.75\% and the random forest-based model produces the highest detection accuracy of 96.29\%.