Metaheuristic optimization algorithms have demonstrated their effectiveness in solving complex optimization tasks, such as those related to Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs). It was widely used to enhance the detection rate of various types of cyber attacks by reducing the feature space or tuning the model’s hyperparameters. The Artificial Rabbit Optimizer (ARO) mimics rabbits’ intelligent foraging and hiding behavior. The ARO algorithm has seen widespread adoption in the optimization field. The widespread use of the ARO algorithm occurs due to its simple design and ease of implementation. However, ARO can get trapped in local optima due to its limited diversity in population dynamics. Although the transition between phases is managed via an energy shrink factor, fine-tuning this balance remains challenging and unexplored. These limitations could limit the ARO algorithm’s effectiveness in high-dimensional space, as with IDS systems. This paper introduces a novel enhancement of the original ARO by integrating Fuzzy Rule Interpolation (FRI) to compute the energy factor during the optimization process dynamically. In this work, we integrate the FRI along with the ARO algorithm to improve solution accuracy, maintain population diversity, and accelerate convergence, particularly in high-dimensional and complex problems such as IDS. The integration of the FRI and ARO aimed to control the exploration-exploitation balance in the IDS application area. To validate our proposed hybrid approach, we tested it on a diverse set of intrusion datasets, covering eight different benchmark intrusion detection datasets. The suggested hybrid approach has been demonstrated to be effective in handling various intrusion classification tasks. For binary intrusion classification tasks, it achieved accuracy rates ranging from 96% to 99.9%. In the case of multiclass intrusion classification tasks, the accuracy was slightly more consistent, falling between 91.6% and 98.9%. The suggested approach effectively reduced the number of feature spaces, achieving reduction rates from 56% up to 96%. Furthermore, the proposed approach outperformed other state-of-the-art methods in terms of detection rate.
Omar Alhory (Tue,) studied this question.