Modeling of Computer Virus Propagation with Fuzzy Parameters

Abstract

Typically, a computer has infectivity as soon as it is infected. It is a reality that no antivirus programming can identify and eliminate all kinds of viruses, suggesting that infections would persevere on the Internet. To understand the dynamics of the virus propagation in a better way, a computer virus spread model with fuzzy parameters is presented in this work. It is assumed that all infected computers do not have the same contribution to the virus transmission process and each computer has a different degree of infectivity, which depends on the quantity of virus. Considering this, the parameters and being functions of the computer virus load, are considered fuzzy numbers. Using fuzzy theory helps us understand the spread of computer viruses more realistically as these parameters have fixed values in classical models. The essential features of the model, like reproduction number and equilibrium analysis, are discussed in fuzzy senses. Moreover, with fuzziness, two numerical methods, the forward Euler technique, and a nonstandard finite difference (NSFD) scheme, respectively, are developed and analyzed. In the evidence of the numerical simulations, the proposed NSFD method preserves the main features of the dynamic system. It can be considered a reliable tool to predict such types of solutions.