Malware Propagation Modeling Considering Software Diversity Approach in Weighted Scale-Free Network

Nowadays, malware propagation has become a major threat in cyber space. Modeling malware propagation process allows us to get a better understanding of the dynamics of malware spreading as well as helping us to find effective defense mechanisms. Due to the security concerns, software diversity has received much attention as a cyber-defense mechanism. In this paper, considering software diversity approach, an epidemic model of malware propagation in scale-free networks is proposed. Software diversity as a defense mechanism reduces the malware propagation process in the network. Simulation results show the effect of different parameters on the malware propagation process. Also, we demonstrate that the assignment of diverse software packages to network nodes reduces the basic reproductive ratio and malware propagation speed in the network. Moreover, the effect of weight's exponent on the speed of malware propagation is investigated.