Safety in Graph Machine Learning: Threats and Safeguards

Abstract--Graph Machine Learning (Graph ML) has witnessed substantial advancements in recent years. With their remarkable ability to process graph-structured data, Graph ML techniques have been extensively utilized across diverse applications, including critical domains like finance, healthcare, and transportation. Despite their societal benefits, recent research highlights significant safety concerns associated with the widespread use of Graph ML models. Lacking safety-focused designs, these models can produce unreliable predictions, demonstrate poor generalizability, and compromise data confidentiality. In high-stakes scenarios such as financial fraud detection, these vulnerabilities could jeopardize both individuals and society at large. Therefore, it is imperative to prioritize the development of safety-oriented Graph ML models to mitigate these risks and enhance public confidence in their applications. In this survey paper, we explore three critical aspects vital for enhancing safety in Graph ML: reliability, generalizability, and confidentiality. We categorize and analyze threats to each aspect under three headings: model threats, data threats, and attack threats. This novel taxonomy guides our review of effective strategies to protect against these threats. Our systematic review lays a groundwork for future research aimed at developing practical, safety-centered Graph ML models. Furthermore, we highlight the significance of safe Graph ML practices and suggest promising avenues for further investigation in this crucial area. To prevalent across a wide range of real-world applications, narrow this gap, our survey seeks to resolve two critical including drug discovery [15], traffic forecasting questions: (1) What are the key aspects involved in the safety [76], and disease diagnosis [96]. Within these domains, issues of Graph ML? (2) What specific types of threats might Graph Machine Learning (Graph ML) plays a pivotal role in arise within each aspect, and how can they be effectively modeling this data and executing graph-based predictive handled? To address the first question, we introduce a novel tasks [83], [187]. However, as the scope of Graph ML taxonomy that facilitates a thorough categorization of safety applications expands, concerns about their underlying safety issues in Graph ML. To answer the second question, we issues intensify [37].