Evaluating machine learning-based intrusion detection systems with explainable AI: enhancing transparency and interpretability

Machine Learning (ML)-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) are integral to securing modern IoT networks but often suffer from a lack of transparency, functioning as “black boxes” with opaque decision-making processes. This study enhances IDS by integrating Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), improving interpretability and trustworthiness while maintaining high predictive performance. Using the UNSW-NB15 dataset, comprising over 2.5 million records and nine diverse attack types, we developed and evaluated multiple ML models, including Decision Trees, Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), XGBoost, Random Forest, CatBoost, Logistic Regression, and Gaussian Naive Bayes. By incorporating XAI techniques such as…