Modeling and analyzing malware diffusion in wireless sensor networks based on cellular automaton

Wireless sensor networks, as a multi-hop self-organized network system formed by wireless communication, are vulnerable to malware diffusion by breaking the data confidentiality and service availability, owing to their low configuration and weak defense mechanism. To reveal the rules of malware diffusion in the really deployed wireless sensor networks, we propose a model called Malware Diffusion Based on Cellular Automaton to describe the dynamics of malware diffusion based on cellular automaton. According to the model, we first analyze and obtain the differential equations, which can reflect the various state dynamics of sensor nodes with cellular automaton. Then, we attain the equilibrium points of the model Malware Diffusion Based on Cellular Automaton to determine the threshold for whether malware will diffuse or die out in wireless sensor networks. Furthermore, we compute the basic regeneration number of the model Malware Diffusion Based on Cellular Automaton using the next-generation matrix and prove the stability of the equilibrium points. Finally, via experimental simulation, we verify the effectiveness of the model Malware Diffusion Based on Cellular Automaton, which can provide administrators with the theoretical guidance on suppressing malware diffusion in wireless sensor networks.