URL Spam Detection Using Machine Learning Classifiers

Cybersecurity has emerged as one of the most prevalent and significant challenges in recent years due to the advancement of technology. Among the most frequent and hazardous cybersecurity threats are spam URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), which are also one of the most popular methods for user fraud. Users are the victims of this attack, which also steals their data and infects their devices with harmful software. The detection of spam URLs has become very important in protecting the user. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the efficiency of machine learning classifiers in detecting spam URLs. The following machine learning classifiers were chosen: Random Forest, Decision Tree, and SVM. The evaluation was based on the ISCXURL2016 dataset, which is divided into three groups: All Features, BestFirst Features, and Infogain Features and evaluation matrices were the Accuracy, Precision, Sensitivity, and F-measure. The results obtained showed that Random Forest with All Features is superior to others with an accuracy of 99.75%, Precision of 99.74%, and Sensitivity of 99. 79%, and F-measure 99.76 %.