Network Stability under Viral Attack - A Game Entitled 'God and the Devil'

Abstract

The problem of viral attacks on communications networks is explored with an emphasis on the time taken for network recovery. The problem is studied by means of a game which allows for different initial states of the network followed by state evolution according to a fixed rule-set. It is found that only a small percentage of nodes in the network need be equipped with countermeasure software for a near asymptotic recovery time to be achieved. However, for all realistic countermeasure percentages, the time for complete recovery - a situation similar to human illness/recouperation time ratios. Keywords: Computer viruses, Great Britain.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA229274

Entities

People

  • S. C. Giess

Organizations

  • Royal Signals and Radar Establishment

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Antidotes
  • Communication Networks
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Countermeasures
  • Fish
  • Foreign Languages
  • Generators
  • Instructions
  • Iterations
  • Language
  • Network Simulation
  • Networks
  • Personal Information Managers
  • Random Number Generators
  • Recovery
  • Simulations

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Nuclear Civil Defense.
  • Virology (or Medical Virology).