Agent-Based Ecological Risk Simulation of Malware Epidemics in Tactical Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

摘要

Securing mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) at the tactical edge has proven to be an exigent operational challenge for Net-Centric Warfare operations. As cyberattacks evolve in both sophistication and ubiquity, the task of accurately assessing risk in sensitive networks has grown more time-consuming, costly, and cumbersome. Traditional risk assessment techniques typically focus on assessing the vulnerabilities of individual systems and ignore the complex connections between software, hardware, and users which may span across entire networks. These connections often change dynamically with the respect to the environment, individual behavior, and active mission. The application of ecological risk-assessment to this complex, adaptive system (CAS) allows for the construction of holistic models of the tactical network ecosystem and its attendant cyber risks. In this work, we propose an agent-based model of ecological risk assessment of a simulated mobile tactical network using the Overview, Design concepts, and Details protocol (ODD). This model leverages a unique metric for dynamic risk assessment "risk flow" which allows for the future prediction of cascading failures.