A SIR e-epidemic model for computer worms based on cellular automata

Abstract

In this work a mathematical model to simulate malware spreading is proposed. Specifically, it is an individual-based model whose dynamic is governed by means of a particular type of finite state machine called cellular automaton. Moreover, it is a SIR compartmental model, i.e. the population of hosts is divided into three classes: susceptible computers, infected computers and recovered computers, and the evolution between these states is ruled according to specific local transition functions involving boolean expressions. Several computer simulations are performed using different initial conditions. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.