An Agent-based Model for Exploring Internet Hacking Trend

摘要

Internet hacking has become a significant threat to businesses, governments, online communities, as well individual network users. Hacking often leads to disruption or even shutting down of important Internet services. We build an agent-based model (ABM) to study the dynamics of Internet hacking and to examine the factors that impact the adoption of Internet hacking. The ABM enables us to explore the interactions and the mutual influences of various types of Internet users with different degrees of hacking propensity. Our simulation demonstrates that the global trend of Internet hacking is more sensitive to the number of law enforcement officers than other factors, such as the initial number of hackers, the probability of encounter, and the degree of interaction. Additionally, we find that external influences such as mass media and hacker websites have significant impact on the emergent hacking trends.