From random failures to targeted attacks in network dismantling

Sebastian Wandelt, Wei Lin, Xiaoqian Sun and Massimiliano Zanin

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2022, vol. 218, issue PA

Abstract: It is well-known that real-world systems, modeled as complex networks, are mostly robust against random failures but susceptible to targeted attacks. In this study, we propose a novel perspective to solve the network dismantling problem. Instead of designing an effective attack from scratch, we show how knowledge extracted from random failures in the network leads to extremely effective attacks. This observed connection between random failures and targeted attacks is striking on its own. Experiments on a wide range of networks show the efficacy of our novel method for network dismantling, providing an excellent trade-off between attack quality and scalability. We believe that our contribution also stimulates research in related domains, including social network influence analysis, spreading dynamics in networks, and efficiency considerations.

Keywords: Complex networks; Network dismantling; Scalability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:218:y:2022:i:pa:s0951832021006335

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2021.108146

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