Vulnerability of Complex Networks under Approximate Longest Chain Attack Strategies

Abstract

Abstract. We proposed three approximate longest chain-attack strategies and studied the vulnerability of complex networks under these intentional attack strategies. Experimental results indicate that when random network and small-world network are under any one of the three chain-attacks, the larger the <k> is, the smaller the iterative step T is. However, scale-free network shows different characteristics: the larger the <k> is, the larger the T is. These findings supplement and extend the previous attack results on nodes and edges, and can thus help us better explain the vulnerability of different complex networks.