Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 259671, 11 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/259671
Research Article

Towards the Epidemiological Modeling of Computer Viruses

Xiaofan Yang1,2 and Lu-Xing Yang2

1School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
2College of Computer Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

Received 25 July 2012; Accepted 20 August 2012

Academic Editor: Yanbing Liu

Copyright © 2012 Xiaofan Yang and Lu-Xing Yang. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Epidemic dynamics of computer viruses is an emerging discipline aiming to understand the way that computer viruses spread on networks. This paper is intended to establish a series of rational epidemic models of computer viruses. First, a close inspection of some common characteristics shared by all typical computer viruses clearly reveals the flaws of previous models. Then, a generic epidemic model of viruses, which is named as the SLBS model, is proposed. Finally, diverse generalizations of the SLBS model are suggested. We believe this work opens a door to the full understanding of how computer viruses prevail on the Internet.