Multi-Scale Feature Fusion-Based Real-Time Anomaly Detection in Industrial Control Systems
Lin Xu, Ke Shang, Xiaohan Zhang, Conghui Zheng, Li Pan
Abstract
Industrial control systems (ICSs) are a critical component of key infrastructure. However, as ICSs transition from isolated systems to modern networked environments, they face increasing security risks. Traditional anomaly detection methods struggle with complex ICS traffic due to their failure to fully utilize both low-frequency and high-frequency traffic information, and their poor performance in heterogeneous and non-stationary data environments. Moreover, fixed threshold methods lack adaptability and fail to respond in real time to dynamic changes in traffic, resulting in false positives and false negatives. To address these issues, this paper proposes a deep learning-based traffic anomaly detection algorithm. The algorithm employs the Hilbert–Huang Transform (HHT) to decompose traffic features and extract multi-frequency information. By integrating feature and temporal attention mechanisms, it enhances modeling capabilities and improves prediction accuracy. Additionally, the deep probabilistic estimation approach dynamically adjusts confidence intervals, enabling synchronized prediction and detection, which significantly enhances both real-time performance and accuracy. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms existing baseline models in both prediction and anomaly detection performance on a real-world industrial control traffic dataset collected from an oilfield in China. The dataset consists of approximately 260,000 records covering Transmission Control Protocol/User Datagram Protocol (TCP/UDP) traffic between Remote Terminal Unit (RTU), Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) devices. This study has practical implications for improving the cybersecurity of ICSs and provides a theoretical foundation for the efficient management of industrial control networks.