The effect of infected external computers on the spread of viruses: A compartment modeling study

Lu-Xing Yang and Xiaofan Yang

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2013, vol. 392, issue 24, 6523-6535

Abstract: Inevitably, there exist infected computers outside of the Internet. This paper aims to understand how infected external computers affect the spread of computer viruses. For that purpose, a new virus–antivirus spreading model, which takes into account the effect of infected/immune external computers, is established. A systematic study shows that, unlike most previous models, the proposed model admits no virus-free equilibrium and admits a globally asymptotically stable viral equilibrium. This result implies that it would be practically impossible to eradicate viruses on the Internet. As a result, inhibiting the virus prevalence to below an acceptable level would be the next best thing. A theoretical study reveals the effect of different parameters on the steady virus prevalence. On this basis, a number of suggestions are made so as to contain virus spreading.

Keywords: Virus–antivirus mixed spreading model; Equilibrium; Global stability; Virus prevalence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:392:y:2013:i:24:p:6523-6535

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2013.08.024

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