Distributed interaction between computer virus and patch: A modeling study

The decentralized patch distribution mechanism holds significant promise as an alternative to its centralized counterpart. For the purpose of accurately evaluating the performance of the decentralized patch distribution mechanism and based on the exact SIPS model that accurately captures the average dynamics of the interaction between viruses and patches, a new virus-patch interacting model, which is known as the generic SIPS model, is proposed. This model subsumes the linear SIPS model. The dynamics of the generic SIPS model is studied comprehensively. In particular, a set of criteria for the final extinction or/and long-term survival of viruses or/and patches are presented. Some conditions for the linear SIPS model to accurately capture the average dynamics of the virus-patch interaction are empirically found. As a consequence, the linear SIPS model can be adopted as a standard model for assessing the performance of the distributed patch distribution mechanism, provided the proper conditions are satisfied

A novel virus-patch dynamic model

The distributed patch dissemination strategies are a promising alternative to the conventional centralized patch dissemination strategies. This paper aims to establish a theoretical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of distributed patch dissemination mechanism. Assuming that the Internet offers P2P service for every pair of nodes on the network, a dynamic model capturing both the virus propagation mechanism and the distributed patch dissemination mechanism is proposed. This model takes into account the infected removable storage media and hence captures the interaction of patches with viruses better than the original SIPS model. Surprisingly, the proposed model exhibits much simpler dynamic properties than the original SIPS model. Specifically, our model admits only two potential (viral) equilibria and undergoes a fold bifurcation. The global stabilities of the two equilibria are determined. Consequently, the dynamical properties of the proposed model are fully understood. Furthermore, it is found that reducing the probability per unit time of disconnecting a node from the Internet benefits the containment of electronic viruses

Towards the epidemiological modeling of computer viruses

Epidemic dynamics of computer viruses is an emerging discipline aiming to understand the way that computer viruses spread on networks. This paper is intended to establish a series of rational epidemic models of computer viruses. First, a close inspection of some common characteristics shared by all typical computer viruses clearly reveals the flaws of previous models. Then, a generic epidemic model of viruses, which is named as the SLBS model, is proposed. Finally, diverse generalizations of the SLBS model are suggested. We believe this work opens a door to the full understanding of how computer viruses prevail on the Internet