Intrusion Detection and Resiliency in Cyber-Physical Systems and Networks—2nd Edition

A special issue of Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903). This special issue belongs to the section "Smart System Infrastructure and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 446

Special Issue Editors


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Department of Computer Science, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
Interests: machine learning; social networks; deep learning; natural-language processing; intrusion detection
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Guest Editor
Idaho National Laboratory, 1955 Fremont Ave, Idaho Falls, ID 83415, USA
Interests: renewable energy systems integration; power systems' control and optimization; power electronics control; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In an increasingly connected world, cyberattacks represent stealthy and often devastating intrusions into networks, systems, and infrastructure. These attacks have evolved in sophistication and frequency, resulting in severe consequences, including security breaches, financial losses, and the compromising of critical systems. Addressing these challenges requires innovative and robust intrusion detection methods that enhance the security and resilience of cyber–physical systems and networks. This Special Issue invites researchers to contribute original and impactful research focusing on intrusion detection techniques and novel approaches in cybersecurity. Emphasis is placed on leveraging cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, blockchain, and quantum security, to address contemporary threats. Additionally, methods that ensure resiliency and adaptability in cyber–physical systems are of particular interest, especially those operating in dynamic and adversarial environments.

We aim to provide a platform for interdisciplinary research that bridges gaps between traditional cybersecurity practices and emerging AI and system resiliency techniques. Contributions addressing practical applications in industries such as smart cities, healthcare, transportation, and energy systems are especially welcome.

We invite the submission of high-quality research articles, reviews, and case studies. Contributions should present theoretical innovations, practical applications, or both, with clear implications for advancing security and resiliency in cyber–physical systems and networks. We encourage submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Machine Learning and Federated Learning: Application of centralized and decentralized machine learning methods to enhance intrusion detection across distributed systems;
  • Resiliency and Robustness: Techniques to ensure systems remain operational despite ongoing attacks or failures;
  • Quantum Security: Novel cryptographic techniques to safeguard systems against quantum-computing-based threats;
  • Adversarial Learning: Strategies to mitigate the impacts of adversarial attacks on AI models;
  • Deep Fake Detection: Identifying and mitigating threats posed by deep fake technologies in communications and operations;
  • Intrusion Detection: Development of scalable, efficient, and accurate methods for detecting unauthorized access;
  • Data Breaches and Privacy Preservation: Techniques to prevent data breaches while maintaining user privacy;
  • Malware Analysis and Detection: Advanced approaches for identifying and neutralizing malware threats;
  • Sybil Attacks and Byzantine Faults: Detection and prevention of attacks targeting distributed systems and blockchains;
  • Ransomware Mitigation: Strategies to detect and respond to ransomware attacks;
  • Blockchain Technology: Leveraging blockchain for secure data sharing and intrusion detection;
  • Honeypots: Deployment and analysis of honeypots for luring and studying attackers;
  • Trustworthy AI: Ensuring AI systems are secure, interpretable, and resilient to attacks;
  • Differential Privacy and Anonymization: Techniques to maintain user anonymity while analyzing sensitive data;
  • Large-Language Models (LLMs): Utilizing and safeguarding advanced AI models in intrusion detection;
  • Phishing Attack Countermeasures: Strategies to identify and neutralize phishing threats effectively.

Dr. Olusola Tolulope Odeyomi
Dr. Temitayo Olowu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • intrusion detection
  • cyber–physical systems
  • machine learning
  • federated learning
  • adversarial learning
  • intrusion detection
  • malware detection
  • blockchain technology
  • trustworthy AI
  • large-language models

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 3824 KB  
Article
BiTAD: An Interpretable Temporal Anomaly Detector for 5G Networks with TwinLens Explainability
by Justin Li Ting Lau, Ying Han Pang, Charilaos Zarakovitis, Heng Siong Lim, Dionysis Skordoulis, Shih Yin Ooi, Kah Yoong Chan and Wai Leong Pang
Future Internet 2025, 17(11), 482; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi17110482 - 22 Oct 2025
Viewed by 254
Abstract
The transition to 5G networks brings unprecedented speed, ultra-low latency, and massive connectivity. Nevertheless, it introduces complex traffic patterns and broader attack surfaces that render traditional intrusion detection systems (IDSs) ineffective. Existing rule-based methods and classical machine learning approaches struggle to capture the [...] Read more.
The transition to 5G networks brings unprecedented speed, ultra-low latency, and massive connectivity. Nevertheless, it introduces complex traffic patterns and broader attack surfaces that render traditional intrusion detection systems (IDSs) ineffective. Existing rule-based methods and classical machine learning approaches struggle to capture the temporal and dynamic characteristics of 5G traffic, while many deep learning models lack interpretability, making them unsuitable for high-stakes security environments. To address these challenges, we propose Bidirectional Temporal Anomaly Detector (BiTAD), a deep temporal learning architecture for anomaly detection in 5G networks. BiTAD leverages dual-direction temporal sequence modelling with attention to encode both past and future dependencies while focusing on critical segments within network sequences. Like many deep models, BiTAD’s faces interpretability challenges. To resolve its “black-box” nature, a dual-perspective explainability module, coined TwinLens, is proposed. This module integrates SHAP and TimeSHAP to provide global feature attribution and temporal relevance, delivering dual-perspective interpretability. Evaluated on the public 5G-NIDD dataset, BiTAD demonstrates superior detection performance compared to existing models. TwinLens enables transparent insights by identifying which features and when they were most influential to anomaly predictions. By jointly addressing the limitations in temporal modelling and interpretability, our work contributes a practical IDS framework tailored to the demands of next-generation mobile networks. Full article
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