A Hybrid Federated–Incremental Learning Framework for Continuous Authentication in Zero-Trust Networks

Abstract

Zero-trust architecture (ZTA) requires continuous and adaptive identity authentication to maintain security in dynamic environments. However, current federated learning (FL)-based authentication models often struggle to incorporate evolving attack patterns without experiencing catastrophic forgetting. Moreover, non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) client data and concept drift frequently lead to degraded model robustness and personalization. To address these issues, this paper presents a hybrid learning framework that integrates federated learning with incremental learning (IL) for sustainable authentication. A Dynamic Weighted Federated Aggregation (DWFA) algorithm is developed to mitigate concept drift by adjusting aggregation weights in real time, ensuring that the global model adapts to changing data distributions. This approach enables continuous learning from distributed threat data while maintaining privacy and eliminating the need for historical data retention. Experimental results on real-world traffic datasets indicate that the proposed framework outperforms conventional FL baselines, reducing the overall error rate by approximately 56% and improving the detection rate for novel attack types by over 17.8%. Furthermore, the framework remains stable against performance decay while maintaining efficient communication overhead. This study provides an adaptive, privacy-preserving solution for identity authentication in zero-trust systems.