What does targeted mean in graph attack?

[Sutongtong233]

What is the definition of targeted attack? For graph data, the target can represent two things:

• target node: attack specific node (in node classification task)
• target label: attack node to be classified as a specific label While the second is more prevalent. For nettack, as I understand, it means target node, not target label. I hope there is some description of targeted here mean. Thanks in advance.

[EdisonLeeeee]

Hi, @Sutongtong233

According to [1][2], a targeted attack typically refers to an instance-specific attack, where an instance can be a node in node classification attack, a link in link prediction task, or a graph in graph classification task.

• [1] A Survey of Adversarial Learning on Graphs
• [2] Adversarial Attack and Defense on Graph Data: A Survey

[ChandlerBang]

@EdisonLeeeee 's answer is correct. Following the setting in nettack, we typically refer target to target instances.

You can also find a definition in this survey [1]:

[1] Adversarial Attacks and Defenses on Graphs: A Review, A Tool and Empirical Studies.