CASOS Working PAPER

"A Computational Model of Computer Virus Propagation"(PDF file)
Authors: Chen, L. C., Carley, K. M.
Abstract
Computer virus infection is the most common computer security problem. This problem has imposed significant amount of financial losses to organizations (CSI, 2000). Even though most organizations have installed anti-virus software in their computers, majority of them still experienced computer virus infection (ICSA, 2000). Most anti-virus software could not detect a new virus unless it is patched with the new virus definition file. Disseminating the new virus information and patches is hence important to raise user awareness. However, little research has focused on evaluating the effectiveness of disseminating new virus information on reducing virus infection. We hence propose a corporate response model to investigate the effectiveness of warning message propagation. In addition, we use the model to study the influence of social network topology on the virus and warning message propagation.