Fast Response to Infection Spread and Cyber Attacks on Large-Scale Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multiscale approach for rapid response to infections and cyber attacks on large weighted networks, aiming to identify critical nodes for immunization to control spread efficiently.

Contribution

It proposes a novel multiscale method tailored for large-scale networks to optimize immunization strategies against infections and cyber threats.

Findings

Effective identification of key nodes for immunization.

Enhanced speed of response in large networks.

Potential for improved containment of infections and cyber attacks.

Abstract

We present a strategy for designing fast methods of response to cyber attacks and infection spread on complex weighted networks. In these networks, nodes can be interpreted as primitive elements of the system, and weighted edges reflect the strength of interaction among these elements. The proposed strategy belongs to the family of multiscale methods whose goal is to approximate the system at multiple scales of coarseness and to obtain a solution of microscopic scale by combining the information from coarse scales. In recent years these methods have demonstrated their potential for solving optimization and analysis problems on large-scale networks. We consider an optimization problem that is based on the SIS epidemiological model. The objective is to detect the network nodes that have to be immunized in order to keep a low level of infection in the system.