Modeling and Control of Malware Propagation in Wireless IoT Networks

Abstract

Wireless Internet of Things (IoT) devices densely populate our daily life, but also attract many attackers to attack them. In this paper, we propose a new Heterogeneous Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered (HSEIR) epidemic model to characterize the effect of heterogeneity of infected wireless IoT devices on malware spreading. Based on the proposed model, we obtain the basic reproduction number, which represents the threshold value of diffusion and governs that the malware is diffusion or not. Also, we derive the malware propagation scale under different cases. These analyses provide theoretical guidance for the application of defense techniques. Numerical simulations validated the correctness and effectiveness of theoretical results. Then, by using Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle, optimal control strategy is proposed to seek time-varying cost-effective solutions against malware outbreaks. More numerical results also showed that some control strategies, such as quarantine and vaccination, should be taken at the beginning of the malware outbreak immediately and become less necessary after a certain period. However, the repairing and fixing strategy, for example applying antivirus patches, would be keep on going constantly.