  Deep neural networks (DNNs) have achieved great success in solving a variety
of machine learning (ML) problems, especially in the domain of image
recognition. However, recent research showed that DNNs can be highly vulnerable
to adversarially generated instances, which look seemingly normal to human
observers, but completely confuse DNNs. These adversarial samples are crafted
by adding small perturbations to normal, benign images. Such perturbations,
while imperceptible to the human eye, are picked up by DNNs and cause them to
misclassify the manipulated instances with high confidence. In this work, we
explore and demonstrate how systematic JPEG compression can work as an
effective pre-processing step in the classification pipeline to counter
adversarial attacks and dramatically reduce their effects (e.g., Fast Gradient
Sign Method, DeepFool). An important component of JPEG compression is its
ability to remove high frequency signal components, inside square blocks of an
image. Such an operation is equivalent to selective blurring of the image,
helping remove additive perturbations. Further, we propose an ensemble-based
technique that can be constructed quickly from a given well-performing DNN, and
empirically show how such an ensemble that leverages JPEG compression can
protect a model from multiple types of adversarial attacks, without requiring
knowledge about the model.
