Virus Propagation in Heterogeneous Bluetooth Networks with Human Behaviors

Abstract

The growth in the use of Smartphones and other mobile computing devices continues to grow rapidly. As mobile wireless communications become ubiquitous, the networks and systems that depend upon them will become more complex. In parallel with this, the spread of digital viruses and malicious content will be an ever increasing threat within this interconnected paradigm requiring counteracting mechanisms to continuously adapt. Current security solutions for mobile devices remain limited in their ability to protect particularly against zero-day attacks. Understanding the propagation characteristics of malware could provide a means to planning protection strategies, but modeling virus propagation behavior in mobile wireless and peer-to-peer communications devices is still immature. A compartmental-based virus propagation model has been developed for Bluetooth communication networks incorporating wireless technological traits and factors that are known to affect virus propagation including human behaviors, heterogeneous devices, and antivirus measures. The model is novel in the richness of its treatment of human factors alongside the technology factors that could impact spread. A simulation scenario, together with an analysis of the spreading dynamics has been conducted to determine how a Bluetooth virus might spread under different conditions. Although demonstrated through Bluetooth, the approach is applicable to malware propagation in general.