Detecting Network-based Internet Censorship via Latent Feature Representation Learning

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.05152v2
• Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2022 11:09:42 GMT
• Title: Detecting Network-based Internet Censorship via Latent Feature Representation Learning
• Authors: Shawn P. Duncan and Hui Chen
• Abstract summary: We design and evaluate a classification model based on latent feature representation learning and an image-based classification model to detect network-based Internet censorship. To infer latent feature representations from network reachability data, we propose a sequence-to-sequence autoencoder. To estimate the probability of censorship events from the inferred latent features, we rely on a densely connected multi-layer neural network model.
• Score: 4.862220550600935
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Internet censorship is a phenomenon of societal importance and attracts investigation from multiple disciplines. Several research groups, such as Censored Planet, have deployed large scale Internet measurement platforms to collect network reachability data. However, existing studies generally rely on manually designed rules (i.e., using censorship fingerprints) to detect network-based Internet censorship from the data. While this rule-based approach yields a high true positive detection rate, it suffers from several challenges: it requires human expertise, is laborious, and cannot detect any censorship not captured by the rules. Seeking to overcome these challenges, we design and evaluate a classification model based on latent feature representation learning and an image-based classification model to detect network-based Internet censorship. To infer latent feature representations from network reachability data, we propose a sequence-to-sequence autoencoder to capture the structure and the order of data elements in the data. To estimate the probability of censorship events from the inferred latent features, we rely on a densely connected multi-layer neural network model. Our image-based classification model encodes a network reachability data record as a gray-scale image and classifies the image as censored or not using a dense convolutional neural network. We compare and evaluate both approaches using data sets from Censored Planet via a hold-out evaluation. Both classification models are capable of detecting network-based Internet censorship as we were able to identify instances of censorship not detected by the known fingerprints. Latent feature representations likely encode more nuances in the data since the latent feature learning approach discovers a greater quantity, and a more diverse set, of new censorship instances.

Related papers

• Exploring Geometry of Blind Spots in Vision Models [56.47644447201878]
  We study the phenomenon of under-sensitivity in vision models such as CNNs and Transformers. We propose a Level Set Traversal algorithm that iteratively explores regions of high confidence with respect to the input space. We estimate the extent of these connected higher-dimensional regions over which the model maintains a high degree of confidence.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-10-30T18:00:33Z)
• Augmenting Rule-based DNS Censorship Detection at Scale with Machine Learning [38.00013408742201]
  Censorship of the domain name system (DNS) is a key mechanism used across different countries. In this paper, we explore how machine learning (ML) models can help streamline the detection process. We find that unsupervised models, trained solely on uncensored instances, can identify new instances and variations of censorship missed by existing probes.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-02-03T23:36:30Z)
• Unfolding Local Growth Rate Estimates for (Almost) Perfect Adversarial Detection [22.99930028876662]
  Convolutional neural networks (CNN) define the state-of-the-art solution on many perceptual tasks. Current CNN approaches largely remain vulnerable against adversarial perturbations of the input that have been crafted specifically to fool the system. We propose a simple and light-weight detector, which leverages recent findings on the relation between networks' local intrinsic dimensionality (LID) and adversarial attacks.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-12-13T17:51:32Z)
• Community detection in censored hypergraph [8.790193989856403]
  We study community detection in censored $m$-uniform hypergraph from information-theoretic point of view. We propose a spectral-time algorithm to exactly recover the community structure up to the threshold. It is also interesting to study whether a single spectral algorithm without refinement the threshold.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-11-04T22:03:20Z)
• Relational Graph Neural Networks for Fraud Detection in a Super-App environment [53.561797148529664]
  We propose a framework of relational graph convolutional networks methods for fraudulent behaviour prevention in the financial services of a Super-App. We use an interpretability algorithm for graph neural networks to determine the most important relations to the classification task of the users. Our results show that there is an added value when considering models that take advantage of the alternative data of the Super-App and the interactions found in their high connectivity.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-07-29T00:02:06Z)
• A Comprehensive Survey on Community Detection with Deep Learning [93.40332347374712]
  A community reveals the features and connections of its members that are different from those in other communities in a network. This survey devises and proposes a new taxonomy covering different categories of the state-of-the-art methods. The main category, i.e., deep neural networks, is further divided into convolutional networks, graph attention networks, generative adversarial networks and autoencoders.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-05-26T14:37:07Z)
• NF-GNN: Network Flow Graph Neural Networks for Malware Detection and Classification [11.624780336645006]
  Malicious software (malware) poses an increasing threat to the security of communication systems. We present three variants of our base model, which all support malware detection and classification in supervised and unsupervised settings. Experiments on four different prediction tasks consistently demonstrate the advantages of our approach and show that our graph neural network model can boost detection performance by a significant margin.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-03-05T20:54:38Z)
• Anomaly Detection on Attributed Networks via Contrastive Self-Supervised Learning [50.24174211654775]
  We present a novel contrastive self-supervised learning framework for anomaly detection on attributed networks. Our framework fully exploits the local information from network data by sampling a novel type of contrastive instance pair. A graph neural network-based contrastive learning model is proposed to learn informative embedding from high-dimensional attributes and local structure.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-02-27T03:17:20Z)
• D-Unet: A Dual-encoder U-Net for Image Splicing Forgery Detection and Localization [108.8592577019391]
  Image splicing forgery detection is a global binary classification task that distinguishes the tampered and non-tampered regions by image fingerprints. We propose a novel network called dual-encoder U-Net (D-Unet) for image splicing forgery detection, which employs an unfixed encoder and a fixed encoder. In an experimental comparison study of D-Unet and state-of-the-art methods, D-Unet outperformed the other methods in image-level and pixel-level detection.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-12-03T10:54:02Z)
• Adversarial Attack on Community Detection by Hiding Individuals [68.76889102470203]
  We focus on black-box attack and aim to hide targeted individuals from the detection of deep graph community detection models. We propose an iterative learning framework that takes turns to update two modules: one working as the constrained graph generator and the other as the surrogate community detection model.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-01-22T09:50:04Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.