Research Article

LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense

Volume: 9 Number: 2 November 30, 2025
EN TR

LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense

Abstract

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) are essential for securing networks today; nevertheless, many systems still exhibit issues such as redundancy of features, fixed thresholding, and a lack of interpretability. In this paper, we present a hybrid anomaly detection approach including Long Short-Term Memory Autoencoder (LSTM-AE), adaptive thresholding, and feature attribution. The LSTM-AE allows modelling of long-term temporal dependencies in network traffic while applying filtering to paradoxically include unnecessary traffic noise and redundancy for proper anomaly detection. The adaptive thresholding is capable of recalibrating to changes in traffic patterns that ultimately mitigate false alarms more accurately. Lastly, by incorporating the Shapley value-based attribution, the model's predictions can be explained by using the aspect of traffic that is most pertinent. he empirical exploration we present on the benchmark datasets demonstrates the effectiveness of the DeepShield model architecture: on CIC-IDS2017, the accuracy was 98.9%, with precision of 98.7%, recall of 98.5%, and F1-score of 98.6%, outperforming LSTM, CNN, and Random Forest baselines; on UNSW-NB15, the score was 95.6 accuracy, with precision of 95.3, recall of 95.0, and F1-score of 95.1, outperforming other competing measures. Based on these additional capabilities shown through the Shapley-based attribution, we can conclude that DeepShield achieves state-of-the-art detection effectiveness while translating the model into a space that is more interpretable, which makes it deployable in enterprise and industrial security that is highly reliant on the defendable integrity of networks.

Keywords

Project Number

1

References

  1. [1] Bandarupalli, G. (2025, February). Efficient deep neural network for intrusion detection using CIC-IDS-2017 dataset. In 2025 First International Conference on Advances in Computer Science, Electrical, Electronics, and Communication Technologies (CE2CT) (pp. 476-480). IEEE.
  2. [2] Huang, L., Chuah, C. W., & Zhen, R. (2025, May). Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory Networks for Efficient Network Intrusion System Classification. In 2025 IEEE 34th Wireless and Optical Communications Conference (WOCC) (pp. 189-193). IEEE.
  3. [3] Sheikh, Z. A., Verma, N., Singh, Y., Tanwar, S., & Alabdulatif, A. (2025). Generalizability Assessment of Learning‐Based Intrusion Detection Systems for IoT Security: Perspectives of Data Diversity. Security and Privacy, 8(2), e70014.
  4. [4] Ali, D., Abid, M. K., Baqer, M., Aziz, Y., Aslam, N., & Umer, N. (2025). Improving The Explainability And Transparency Of Deep Learning Models In Intrusion Detection SYSTEMS. Kashf Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 2(02), 149-164.
  5. [5] Gwassi, O.A.H., Uçan, O.N. & Navarro, E.A. Cyber-XAI-Block: an end-to-end cyber threat detection & fl-based risk assessment framework for IoT-enabled smart organization using xai and blockchain technologies. Multimed Tools Appl 84, 26527–26568 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-024-20059-4
  6. [6] Xue, Y., Kang, C., & Yu, H. (2025). HAE-HRL: A network intrusion detection system utilizing a novel autoencoder and a hybrid enhanced LSTM-CNN-based residual network. Computers & Security, 151, 104328.
  7. [7] Bamber, S. S., Katkuri, A. V. R., Sharma, S., & Angurala, M. (2025). A hybrid CNN-LSTM approach for intelligent cyber intrusion detection system. Computers & Security, 148, 104146.
  8. [8] Alashjaee, A. M. (2025). Deep learning for network security: an Attention-CNN-LSTM model for accurate intrusion detection. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 21856.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Applied Computing (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Early Pub Date

November 18, 2025

Publication Date

November 30, 2025

Submission Date

September 18, 2025

Acceptance Date

November 12, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Volume: 9 Number: 2

APA
Gwassi, O., Tariq Kalil Al-khayyat, A., & Uçan, O. N. (2025). LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies and Innovative Technologies, 9(2), 215-226. https://izlik.org/JA49PF68FW
AMA
1.Gwassi O, Tariq Kalil Al-khayyat A, Uçan ON. LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense. IJMSIT. 2025;9(2):215-226. https://izlik.org/JA49PF68FW
Chicago
Gwassi, Omar, Ali Tariq Kalil Al-khayyat, and Osman Nuri Uçan. 2025. “LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense”. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies and Innovative Technologies 9 (2): 215-26. https://izlik.org/JA49PF68FW.
EndNote
Gwassi O, Tariq Kalil Al-khayyat A, Uçan ON (November 1, 2025) LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies and Innovative Technologies 9 2 215–226.
IEEE
[1]O. Gwassi, A. Tariq Kalil Al-khayyat, and O. N. Uçan, “LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense”, IJMSIT, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 215–226, Nov. 2025, [Online]. Available: https://izlik.org/JA49PF68FW
ISNAD
Gwassi, Omar - Tariq Kalil Al-khayyat, Ali - Uçan, Osman Nuri. “LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense”. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies and Innovative Technologies 9/2 (November 1, 2025): 215-226. https://izlik.org/JA49PF68FW.
JAMA
1.Gwassi O, Tariq Kalil Al-khayyat A, Uçan ON. LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense. IJMSIT. 2025;9:215–226.
MLA
Gwassi, Omar, et al. “LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense”. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies and Innovative Technologies, vol. 9, no. 2, Nov. 2025, pp. 215-26, https://izlik.org/JA49PF68FW.
Vancouver
1.Omar Gwassi, Ali Tariq Kalil Al-khayyat, Osman Nuri Uçan. LSTM-AU: Dynamic Thresholding and Explainable Autoencoding for Cyber Defense. IJMSIT [Internet]. 2025 Nov. 1;9(2):215-26. Available from: https://izlik.org/JA49PF68FW