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Advances in Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Computing and Artificial Intelligence".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027 | Viewed by 1907

Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Physics and Computer Science, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON L9T 5E1, Canada
Interests: AI for security; digital twin networks; Internet of Things; mobile computing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data-driven technologies are transforming the cybersecurity landscape. As modern digital systems become more complex and interconnected, new and advanced cyber threats continue to surface. This generates an urgent need for intelligent, adaptable, and autonomous defence systems capable of protecting critical infrastructure, cloud environments, IoT ecosystems, and large-scale enterprise networks. Therefore, this Special Issue seeks to present innovative ideas, new methodologies, and experimental results in applying AI to cybersecurity challenges, from theoretical foundations and algorithmic developments to practical implementations and real-world case studies.

Areas relevant to AI-driven cybersecurity include, but are not limited to, intelligent threat detection, anomaly and malware analysis, intrusion detection systems, adversarial machine learning, secure federated learning, privacy-preserving AI, automated vulnerability assessment, and security analytics for big data environments. Research on AI models robust to adversarial attacks, AI for digital forensics, and the use of deep learning in securing networked and distributed systems is also of significant interest.

This Special Issue will publish high-quality, original research papers in the following overlapping fields:

  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning for cybersecurity;
  • Deep learning for threat detection and intrusion response;
  • Adversarial machine learning and robust AI models;
  • Malware detection, analysis, and classification;
  • Network, cloud, IoT, and edge security analytics;
  • Privacy-preserving and trustworthy AI;
  • Secure federated and distributed learning;
  • Cyber threat intelligence and automated security operations;
  • Big data security and anomaly detection;
  • AI-driven digital forensics and incident response.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Samuel Okegbile
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • artificial intelligence for cybersecurity
  • machine learning for threat detection
  • deep learning in security
  • adversarial machine learning
  • intrusion detection systems
  • malware analysis
  • privacy-preserving AI
  • cyber threat intelligence
  • secure federated learning
  • network and IoT security

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 4298 KB  
Article
Beyond Visual Cues: Impact Analysis of Multi-Duration PCAPs for Deepfake Video Detection Using Network Traffic
by Atif Asim, Muhammad Umair, Nauman Mazhar and Mamoona Naveed Asghar
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(16), 8223; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16168223 - 18 Aug 2026
Viewed by 382
Abstract
The use of deepfake media, particularly face-swap and face-shifter videos, has proliferated rapidly on social media and online news outlets. Though there are legitimate uses for this synthetic media in certain applications, such as media reporting, there is always the possibility of misleading [...] Read more.
The use of deepfake media, particularly face-swap and face-shifter videos, has proliferated rapidly on social media and online news outlets. Though there are legitimate uses for this synthetic media in certain applications, such as media reporting, there is always the possibility of misleading people, creating distrust of digital information, and even posing security threats. Most existing studies have focused on deepfake detection using either image or video frames; however, these methods are computationally costly and do not perform well in real time. To address these limitations, this work proposes a pipeline for deepfake video detection using network packet analysis. A novel PCAP dataset is constructed by streaming real and manipulated video content over WebRTC and TCP (Port 8080) protocols, and machine learning models are then trained on 48 extracted network-level features to distinguish deepfake traffic from authentic streams. For implementation, four deepfake video datasets of varying quality are utilized, namely, HIDF, FaceForensics++, SDFVD-V2, and ManualFake-2022, each containing both real and manipulated samples. Videos are segmented into 3, 6, and 9-s clips and sequentially streamed over WebRTC and TCP (Port 8080) protocols to capture network traffic in PCAP format. Experiments are conducted using six classical machine learning classifiers, namely KNN, Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Histogram Gradient Boosting, and Naïve Bayes, trained on 48 network-level features. The proposed pipeline achieved the highest classification accuracy of 91.2% on TCP (Port 8080) and 79.9% on the WebRTC protocol, both obtained using 6-s video captures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity)
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73 pages, 1092 KB  
Article
Multi-Vector Adversarial Testing of an AI-Orchestrated Zero Trust Methodology on Constrained Edge Hardware
by Ian Matthew Campbell Coston, Karl David Hezel, Eadan Plotnizky and Mehrdad Nojoumian
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(10), 4809; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16104809 - 12 May 2026
Viewed by 742
Abstract
This paper is the empirical validation companion to our prior methodology paper introducing the Automated Zero Trust Risk Management with DevSecOps Integration (AZTRM-D) methodology, conducted through multi-vector adversarial testing on physical NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano hardware. AZTRM-D unifies DevSecOps automation, the NIST Risk [...] Read more.
This paper is the empirical validation companion to our prior methodology paper introducing the Automated Zero Trust Risk Management with DevSecOps Integration (AZTRM-D) methodology, conducted through multi-vector adversarial testing on physical NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano hardware. AZTRM-D unifies DevSecOps automation, the NIST Risk Management Framework, and Zero Trust architecture with AI orchestration via Cybectr Sentinel, featuring six AI subsystems with formal specifications. Testing spanned three progressive hardening stages across seven attack categories under a blind three-tester protocol with inter-rater agreement analysis. Factory-default devices were fully compromised in under five minutes. After full hardening, zero successful breaches were recorded across any tested vector. The CI/CD pipeline achieved a vulnerability detection rate of 96.8% (Wilson 95% CI: [0.891, 0.991]). Sentinel delivered 94.1% precision, 91.8% recall, and 4.2 min average detection time within 12–18% CPU overhead on edge hardware. A 14-capability comparative analysis against five established frameworks found seven capabilities unique to AZTRM-D. The 93.7% adversarial detection rate is reported against DiCE-generated counterfactual inputs and is bounded by the black-box threat model used in evaluation; gradient-based white-box attack evaluation is documented as a scoped Stage 4 future-work item. All three testers are affiliated with Cybectr LLC, the developer of AZTRM-D and Cybectr Sentinel; this conflict of interest is the most significant limitation of the present work, and independent third-party laboratory validation is the highest-priority Stage 4 deliverable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Artificial Intelligence for Cybersecurity)
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