Modeling Network Worm Outbreaks

Due to their convenience, computers have become a standard in society and therefore, need the utmost care. It is convenient and useful to model the behavior of digital virus outbreaks that occur, globally or locally. Compartmental models will be used to analyze the mannerisms and behaviors of computer malware. This paper will focus on a computer worm, a type of malware, spread within a business network. A mathematical model is proposed consisting of four compartments labeled as Susceptible, Infectious, Treatment, and Antidotal. We shall show that allocating resources into treating infectious computers leads to a reduced peak of infections across the infection period, while pouring resources into treating susceptible computers decreases the total amount of infections throughout the infection period. This is assuming both methods are receiving resources without loss. This result reveals an interesting notion of balance between protecting computers and removing computers from infections, ultimately depending on the business executives' goals and/or preferences.