Epidemic Spreading of Computer Worms in Fixed Wireless Networks

Abstract

Worms are stand-alone computer viruses which use networks for their spreading among computing devices. The last few years have seen the emergence of a new type of worms which specifically target portable computing devices, such as smartphones and laptops. The novel feature of these worms is that they do not necessarily require Internet connectivity for their propagation but can spread directly from device to device using a short-range communication technology, such as Bluetooth or WiFi. In this paper we use a combination of large-scale simulations and mathematical modelling to explore epidemic spreading of wireless worms in fixed adhoc networks. We show that the spreading of worms in these networks is greatly affected by a combination of spatial correlations arising from network topology and temporal correlations resulting from the interference-limited nature of communications in thees networks. Standard mean-field and network mean-field models from mathematical biology, which are widely used to model worm epidemics in computer networks, are inadequate for describing worm epidemics in wireless adhoc networks but spatial epidemic models provide a promising alternative.