Advancing Security in AI Systems: A Novel Approach to Detecting Backdoors in Deep Neural Networks

In the rapidly evolving landscape of communication and network security, the increasing reliance on deep neural networks (DNNs) and cloud services for data processing presents a significant vulnerability: the potential for backdoors that can be exploited by malicious actors. Our approach leverages advanced tensor decomposition algorithms-Independent Vector Analysis (IVA), Multiset Canonical Correlation Analysis (MCCA), and Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC2)-to meticulously analyze the weights of pre-trained DNNs and distinguish between back-doored and clean models effectively. The key strengths of our method lie in its domain independence, adaptability to various network architectures, and ability to operate without access to the training data of the scrutinized models. This not only ensures versatility across different application scenarios but also addresses the challenge of identifying backdoors without prior knowledge of the specific triggers employed to alter network behavior. We have applied our detection pipeline to three distinct computer vision datasets, encompassing both image classification and object detection tasks. The results demonstrate a marked improvement in both accuracy and efficiency over existing back-door detection methods. This advancement enhances the security of deep learning and AI in networked systems, providing essential cybersecurity against evolving threats in emerging technologies.