Abstract
Malware is pervasive in networks, and poses a critical threat to network security. However, we have very limited understanding of malware behavior in networks to date. In this paper, we investigate how malware propagates in networks from a global perspective. We formulate the problem, and establish a rigorous two layer epidemic model for malware propagation from network to network. Based on the proposed model, our analysis indicates that the distribution of a given malware follows exponential distribution, power law distribution with a short exponential tail, and power law distribution at its early, late and final stages, respectively. Extensive experiments have been performed through two real-world global scale malware data sets, and the results confirm our theoretical findings.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 6807753 |
Pages (from-to) | 170-179 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Malware
- Modelling
- Power law
- Propagation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Computer Science Applications
- Computational Theory and Mathematics