A Review of Federated Meta-Learning and Its Application in Cyberspace Security

Abstract

In recent years, significant progress has been made in the application of federated learning (FL) in various aspects of cyberspace security, such as intrusion detection, privacy protection, and anomaly detection. However, the robustness of federated learning in the face of malicious attacks (such us adversarial attacks, backdoor attacks, and poisoning attacks) is weak, and the unfair allocation of resources leads to slow convergence and inefficient communication efficiency regarding FL models. Additionally, the scarcity of malicious samples during FL model training and the heterogeneity of data result in a lack of personalization in FL models. These challenges pose significant obstacles to the application of federated learning in the field of cyberspace security. To address these issues, the introduction of meta-learning into federated learning has been proposed, resulting in the development of federated meta-learning models. These models aim to train personalized models for each client, reducing performance discrepancies across different clients and enhancing model fairness. In order to advance research on federated meta-learning and its applications in the field of cyberspace security, this paper first introduces the algorithms of federated meta-learning. Based on different usage principles, these algorithms are categorized into client-level personalization algorithms, network algorithms, prediction algorithms, and recommendation algorithms, and are thoroughly presented and analyzed. Subsequently, the paper divides current cyberspace security issues in the network domain into three branches: information content security, network security, and information system security. For each branch, the application research methods and achievements of federated meta-learning are elucidated and compared, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of federated meta-learning in addressing different cyberspace security issues. Finally, the paper concludes with an outlook on the deep application of federated meta-learning in the field of cyberspace security.