Moving Target Defense for the CloudControl Game

Abstract

The recent global spread of cloud computing has streamlined all kinds of tasks by allowing people to go online and get the services they need, when they need them. The cloud is a revolutionary system that saves time, effort, and money. On the other hand, devices connected to the cloud pose the risk of cyber-attacks. One example is Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), which analyze a target over a long period of time and expose it to danger. The increase in this threat has led to the need for robustness against stealthy attacks. In this paper, we propose Moving Target Defense (MTD) as a defense strategy in the CloudControl game model, which models the interaction between the cloud-connected devices, the defender and the attacker struggling for control of the cloud. We also prove the convergence of this strategy against a static attacker by numerical experiments. Our results contribute to cyber insurance, commercial investment, and corporate policy.