A distributed patching scheme for controlling mobile malware infection

Abstract

Mobile malware has become a serious security challenge in the world. Google Android dominated the global Smart-phone market in 2014. This popularity makes it easier for the attackers to target larger community of devices. In this paper, we study the dynamics of infection propagation of mobile malware over mobile phones. We construct a framework for simulating peer-to-peer malware infection among mobile users in a community such as students in a campus. Also, we propose a distributed patching scheme for controlling and protecting users in a community against rapid propagation of mobile malware. This technique is effective especially in the underdeveloped countries with expensive and limited mobile Internet services. Using our framework, we simulate the infection rate and performance of patching techniques for a campus area. Our simulation results verify that under certain conditions immunization rate (reaching 90% immunization in the community) in our scheme is 3.5 times faster than the classic centralized scheme. Also, using our scheme would reduce infected devices population in the early stages of malware spreading four times faster.