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Title: Designing Size Consistent Statistics for Accurate Anomaly Detection in Dynamic Networks

Journal Article · · ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3185059· OSTI ID:1497323
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)

An important task in network analysis is the detection of anomalous events in a network time series. These events could merely be times of interest in the network timeline or they could be examples of malicious activity or network malfunction. Hypothesis testing using network statistics to summarize the behavior of the network provides a robust framework for the anomaly detection decision process. Unfortunately, choosing network statistics that are dependent on confounding factors like the total number of nodes or edges can lead to incorrect conclusions (e.g., false positives and false negatives). In this article, we describe the challenges that face anomaly detection in dynamic network streams regarding confounding factors. We also provide two solutions to avoiding error due to confounding factors: the first is a randomization testing method that controls for confounding factors, and the second is a set of size-consistent network statistics that avoid confounding due to the most common factors, edge count and node count.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1497323
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-738004; 889202
Journal Information:
ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data, Vol. 20, Issue 2; ISSN 1556-4681
Publisher:
Association for Computing MachineryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 3 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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