Peer-to-Peer Networks for Modeling Malware Propagation

A key emerging and popular communication paradigm, primarily employed for information dissemination, is Peer-To-Peer (P2P) networking. In this paper, the authors model the spread of malware in decentralized, Gnutella type of peer-to-peer networks. Their study reveals that the existing bound on the spectral radius governing the possibility of an epidemic outbreak needs to be revised in the context of a P2P network. They formulate an analytical model that emulates the mechanics of a decentralized Gnutella type of peer network and study the spread of malware on such networks.