An Ensemble Approach for Detection of Malicious URLs Using SOM and Tabu Search Optimization

The fast spread of malicious URLs is a significant risk to online safety, since it makes assaults like spam, phishing, virus distribution, and vandalism of websites easier to carry out. The dynamic nature of these threats makes traditional detection techniques unable to keep up. Enhanced methods tha...

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Main Authors: Simar Preet Singh, Abhilash Maroju, Mohammad Kamrul Hasan, Karan Tejpal
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Erbil Polytechnic University 2025-07-01
Series:Polytechnic Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://polytechnic-journal.epu.edu.iq/home/vol15/iss2/2
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author Simar Preet Singh
Abhilash Maroju
Mohammad Kamrul Hasan
Karan Tejpal
author_facet Simar Preet Singh
Abhilash Maroju
Mohammad Kamrul Hasan
Karan Tejpal
author_sort Simar Preet Singh
collection DOAJ
description The fast spread of malicious URLs is a significant risk to online safety, since it makes assaults like spam, phishing, virus distribution, and vandalism of websites easier to carry out. The dynamic nature of these threats makes traditional detection techniques unable to keep up. Enhanced methods that can handle large-scale datasets and identify new attack patterns are needed for the real-time identification of malicious URLs. This research presents a strong hybrid machine learning approach that combines accurate classification with effective feature extraction. For feature extraction, we provide a Self-Organizing Map based Radial Movement Optimization (SOM-RMO); for classification, we present an Ensemble Radial Basis Function Network (ERBFN) optimized by Tabu Search. An RBFN tuned via Tabu Search guarantees high accuracy in the harmful URL categorization; meanwhile, the SOM-RMO efficiently performs dimensionality reduction, accentuating vital features. Our model performs better than other models in a variety of malicious URL attack scenarios. It substantially outperformed conventional detection techniques, attaining an accuracy of 97.1 %, precision of 96.4 %, recall of 95.8 %, and an F1-score of 96.0 % on a benchmark dataset.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2707-7799
language English
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publisher Erbil Polytechnic University
record_format Article
series Polytechnic Journal
spelling doaj-art-03bae8c1bffb44f58cf7ba9a29d3919c2025-08-21T07:55:16ZengErbil Polytechnic UniversityPolytechnic Journal2707-77992025-07-01152128136https://doi.org/10.59341/2707-7799.1852An Ensemble Approach for Detection of Malicious URLs Using SOM and Tabu Search OptimizationSimar Preet Singh0Abhilash Maroju1Mohammad Kamrul Hasan2Karan Tejpal3Bennett University, Greater Noida, IndiaDepartment of Information Technology, University of the Cumberlands, USAFaculty of Information Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, MalaysiaUniversity of Massachusetts, Lowell, USAThe fast spread of malicious URLs is a significant risk to online safety, since it makes assaults like spam, phishing, virus distribution, and vandalism of websites easier to carry out. The dynamic nature of these threats makes traditional detection techniques unable to keep up. Enhanced methods that can handle large-scale datasets and identify new attack patterns are needed for the real-time identification of malicious URLs. This research presents a strong hybrid machine learning approach that combines accurate classification with effective feature extraction. For feature extraction, we provide a Self-Organizing Map based Radial Movement Optimization (SOM-RMO); for classification, we present an Ensemble Radial Basis Function Network (ERBFN) optimized by Tabu Search. An RBFN tuned via Tabu Search guarantees high accuracy in the harmful URL categorization; meanwhile, the SOM-RMO efficiently performs dimensionality reduction, accentuating vital features. Our model performs better than other models in a variety of malicious URL attack scenarios. It substantially outperformed conventional detection techniques, attaining an accuracy of 97.1 %, precision of 96.4 %, recall of 95.8 %, and an F1-score of 96.0 % on a benchmark dataset.https://polytechnic-journal.epu.edu.iq/home/vol15/iss2/2malicious urls,machine learning,feature extraction,tabu search,radial basis function network (rbfn)
spellingShingle Simar Preet Singh
Abhilash Maroju
Mohammad Kamrul Hasan
Karan Tejpal
An Ensemble Approach for Detection of Malicious URLs Using SOM and Tabu Search Optimization
Polytechnic Journal
malicious urls,
machine learning,
feature extraction,
tabu search,
radial basis function network (rbfn)
title An Ensemble Approach for Detection of Malicious URLs Using SOM and Tabu Search Optimization
title_full An Ensemble Approach for Detection of Malicious URLs Using SOM and Tabu Search Optimization
title_fullStr An Ensemble Approach for Detection of Malicious URLs Using SOM and Tabu Search Optimization
title_full_unstemmed An Ensemble Approach for Detection of Malicious URLs Using SOM and Tabu Search Optimization
title_short An Ensemble Approach for Detection of Malicious URLs Using SOM and Tabu Search Optimization
title_sort ensemble approach for detection of malicious urls using som and tabu search optimization
topic malicious urls,
machine learning,
feature extraction,
tabu search,
radial basis function network (rbfn)
url https://polytechnic-journal.epu.edu.iq/home/vol15/iss2/2
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