Targeted Damage to Interdependent Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a heuristic method called Effective Multiplex Degree for targeted attacks on interdependent networks, demonstrating it outperforms other strategies in efficiently destroying the giant mutually connected component.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel heuristic strategy for targeted attacks on interdependent networks that leverages multiplex network properties to minimize damage sets, outperforming existing methods.

Findings

Effective Multiplex Degree outperforms other algorithms in damage efficiency.

Decycling strategies are less effective than targeting high-degree nodes in interdependent networks.

Targeted damage can significantly hasten the collapse of the GMCC.

Abstract

The giant mutually connected component (GMCC) of an interdependent or multiplex network collapses with a discontinuous hybrid transition under random damage to the network. If the nodes to be damaged are selected in a targeted way, the collapse of the GMCC may occur significantly sooner. Finding the minimal damage set which destroys the largest mutually connected component of a given interdependent network is a computationally prohibitive simultaneous optimization problem. We introduce a simple heuristic strategy -- Effective Multiplex Degree -- for targeted attack on interdependent networks that leverages the indirect damage inherent in multiplex networks to achieve a damage set smaller than that found by any other non computationally intensive algorithm. We show that the intuition from single layer networks that decycling (damage of the $2$-core) is the most effective way to destroy the giant component, does not carry over to interdependent networks, and in fact such approaches are worse than simply removing the highest degree nodes.