A vital component in ensuring network security is an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), and classical Machine Learning (ML) models often struggle to keep pace with sophisticated cyber threats. Quantum Computing, a probabilistic computational class utilising the principles of quantum mechanics, has shown its potential to address some of these challenges through quantum parallelism and entanglement. In this work, we explore the use of Quantum Machine Learning (QML), specifically Quantum Convolutional Neural Network (QCNN) and Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM), to determine the benefits of using quantum kernels over classical kernels. We investigate multiple ansatz designs, and entanglement patterns, that generate sufficient representations of vectors in the Hilbert space to distinguish normal from malicious activity. The results have shown improvements in both models compared to their classical counterparts, with QSVM being the best performing when circuit block entanglement is used.
A vital component in ensuring network security is an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), and classical Machine Learning (ML) models often struggle to keep pace with sophisticated cyber threats. Quantum Computing, a probabilistic computational class utilising the principles of quantum mechanics, has shown its potential to address some of these challenges through quantum parallelism and entanglement. In this work, we explore the use of Quantum Machine Learning (QML), specifically Quantum Convolutional Neural Network (QCNN) and Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM), to determine the benefits of using quantum kernels over classical kernels. We investigate multiple ansatz designs, and entanglement patterns, that generate sufficient representations of vectors in the Hilbert space to distinguish normal from malicious activity. The results have shown improvements in both models compared to their classical counterparts, with QSVM being the best performing when circuit block entanglement is used.
Intrusion detection systems (IDS) are essential for identifying cyber threats in complex digital environments. Machine learning (ML) is widely used to improve IDS by detecting anomalies, but classical ML methods often struggle with high-dimensional data and evolving threats. Quantum machine learning (QML) has been proposed as a potential paradigm to overcome some of these limitations, but is constrained by noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) challenges, affecting quality. This study systematically evaluates three QML models, Pegasos Quantum Support Vector Classifier (QSVC), Variational Quantum Classifier (VQC), and a Hybrid Quantum–Classical Neural Network (HQNN), for network anomaly detection. The models were optimized and tested on the ToN_IoT and NSL-KDD datasets using IBM quantum simulators under both ideal and noisy conditions. Performance was analyzed through the F1-score distribution as a function of circuit complexity, revealing how entanglement and noise affect robustness across different backends. Comparisons with classical models contextualize the current maturity of QML for cybersecurity, while computational time was used as an indicator of model complexity to explore accuracy–efficiency trade-offs. Among all configurations, Pegasos-QSVC achieved the best results, with 94.60% accuracy and an F1-score of 94.13%. The findings provide practical guidelines for designing noise-resilient QML models and highlight their potential for reliable intrusion detection under realistic quantum conditions.
Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) are a cornerstone of modern cybersecurity; however, their performance is increasingly constrained by high-dimensional network traffic and the scalability limitations of classical machine learning approaches. Quantum Machine Learning (QML) has recently emerged as a promising paradigm by leveraging quantum feature spaces and hybrid quantum–classical optimization. In this work, we present a unified and reproducible benchmarking framework for QML-based intrusion detection under realistic Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) constraints. The proposed framework integrates hybrid Quantum Neural Networks (QNNs) and Quantum Support Vector Machines (QSVMs) within a consistent experimental pipeline, enabling a systematic comparison of quantum models, embedding strategies, and dimensionality reduction techniques. Experiments are conducted on the NSL-KDD benchmark dataset for both binary (normal versus attack) and multiclass intrusion detection tasks. Multiple quantum embedding strategies, including angle, amplitude, and Instantaneous Quantum Polynomial (IQP) embeddings, are evaluated in conjunction with PCA-based dimensionality reduction to analyze trade-offs between expressivity, circuit complexity, and computational cost. The proposed models are benchmarked against strong classical baselines under identical preprocessing and evaluation conditions. The results demonstrate that QNN- and QSVM-based IDS models achieve competitive and, in several scenarios, superior performance compared to classical approaches, particularly in multiclass settings characterized by nonlinear and imbalanced data distributions. In addition, we provide an in-depth analysis of scalability limitations, training complexity, and NISQ feasibility, highlighting practical considerations for real-world deployment. To ensure full reproducibility, all implementation details, datasets, and experimental configurations are publicly available at: https://github.com/raidanis/QML-IDS-NSLKDD. These findings position hybrid QML as a promising complementary paradigm for next-generation intrusion detection systems, particularly in low-dimensional and high-complexity feature spaces.
This survey examines quantum-enhanced machine learning techniques for intrusion detection in Internet of Things (IoT) and fog environments, synthesizing recent work on hybrid quantum-classical models, quantum convolutional neural networks (QCNNs), quantum support vector machines (QSVMs), and quantum-assisted clustering.We review five recent primary studies that apply quantum methods to IoT security, summarize their methodological choices (encoding, circuit ansatz, classical-quantum interfaces), and evaluate reported benefits and limitations with respect to accuracy, computational cost, and deployability in resource-constrained settings.The literature indicates potential gains in feature expressivity and false-negative reduction from quantum encodings and variational circuits, but practical barriers remain: limited qubit counts, noisy hardware, encoding overhead, and scarce real-world deployment studies.We identify concrete research gaps and propose directions for lightweight encodings, noise-aware hybrid architectures, federated quantum-assisted Intrusion Detection System (IDS), and standardized benchmarks for reproducible evaluation.The survey aims to guide researchers and practitioners toward scalable, explainable, and deployable quantum-enhanced intrusion detection for IoT.
Quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms for intrusion detection systems in software-defined networks are investigated, and their effectiveness is compared with their classical machine learning methods. The University of Nevada - Reno intrusion detection dataset (UNR-IDD) is used to evaluate different QML models, including quantum k-nearest neighbors (QKNNs), quantum support vector machines (QSVMs), quantum neural networks (QNNs), and hybrid quantum neural networks (HQNNs). These models were tested with quantum simulators to evaluate their potential advantages in processing complex datasets. The results show that HQNN and QSVM have higher accuracy than their classical SVM and NN counterparts. This study shows the potential of leveraging QML to enhance precision. References to other works that dive into efficiency and complexity are included.
Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) play a fundamental role in safeguarding digital infrastructures against cyber threats. Quantum Machine Learning (QML) presents a promising frontier in this domain, offering potential computational speedups and improved management of complex datasets. However, its practical deployment is currently limited by the constraints of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices. This work explores the application of various QML approaches, specifically Quantum Support Vector Classifiers (QSVC), Variational Quantum Classifiers (VQC), and hybrid quantum-classical neural networks for anomaly detection tasks. The models were fine-tuned and benchmarked using the ToN_IoT dataset, with performance assessed on IBM's noisy quantum simulators to evaluate their behavior under realistic noise conditions. Results indicate that the Pegasos-QSVC model outperformed others, reaching an accuracy of 93.05% and an F1 score of 93.73%. Through a comparative analysis of different circuit architectures, this study identifies strategies to improve the robustness of QML systems, emphasizing their emerging potential in cybersecurity scenarios.
Quantum computing presents potential advantages over classical computing in terms of computational complexity. Therefore, it is expected for quantum machine learning applications to have improvements in capacity and learning efficiency over classical machine learning methods. This paper aims to present a Systematic Literature Review of articles published between 2017 and 2022, identifying, analyzing, and comparing different proposals of quantum machine learning applications for network intrusion detection systems (IDS). This study focused on identifying papers that implemented quantum machine learning algorithms in the context of intrusion detection systems. The main algorithms found were variational hybrid quantum-classical, with models based on quantum support vector machines and quantum neural networks. Benefits compared to classical models were observed and described, such as reduced training time and improved classification accuracy for attacking traffic.