# Traffic-aware Patching for Cyber Security in Mobile IoT

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a traffic-aware patching scheme for IoT networks that strategically patches intermediate nodes to prevent malware spread, addressing the challenge of limited patching resources and response times.

## Contribution

It proposes a novel traffic-aware patching method specifically designed for IoT systems, improving malware containment by selecting key nodes for patching.

## Key findings

- The scheme effectively reduces malware propagation in IoT networks.
- Experiments show improved containment with limited patching resources.
- The approach outperforms traditional patching strategies.

## Abstract

The various types of communication technologies and mobility features in Internet of Things (IoT) on the one hand enable fruitful and attractive applications, but on the other hand facilitates malware propagation, thereby raising new challenges on handling IoT-empowered malware for cyber security. Comparing with the malware propagation control scheme in traditional wireless networks where nodes can be directly repaired and secured, in IoT, compromised end devices are difficult to be patched. Alternatively, blocking malware via patching intermediate nodes turns out to be a more feasible and practical solution. Specifically, patching intermediate nodes can effectively prevent the proliferation of malware propagation by securing infrastructure links and limiting malware propagation to local device-to-device dissemination. This article proposes a novel traffic-aware patching scheme to select important intermediate nodes to patch, which applies to the IoT system with limited patching resources and response time constraint. Experiments on real-world trace datasets in IoT networks are conducted to demonstrate the advantage of the proposed traffic-aware patching scheme in alleviating malware propagation.