The Impact of Quarantine Strategies on Malware dynamics in a Network with Heterogeneous Immunity

Abstract

. In this paper, we investigate the influence of two types of isolation on malware propagation within a computer network. Model 1 proposes the network quarantine strategy, where infected computers are fully disconnected from the network. As for model 2, the control strategy is the anti-virus software quarantine, where infected files in a computer are contained in an isolation folder. Both models consider the aspect of heterogeneous immunity, that is, weak and strong immunization of computers in a network. Analytical examinations produced a virus-free equilibrium and an endemic equilibrium for each model. It has been observed that the quarantine reproduction number R q plays an essential role in the existence and stability of the equilibrium points. Furthermore, numerical simulations are accomplished to substantiate the qualitative results. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is executed to specify the dominant parameters on R q . It is found that the performance of network quarantine is better than anti-virus software quarantine in controlling malware propagation.