An eigenvalue-based immunization scheme for node attacks in networks with uncertainty

Dear editor, Controlling the propagation through immunization has applications in a number of fields [1]. A key facilitator for malware and attacks dissemination is the interconnectivity between networks, systems and devices. Therefore, our essential is to ‘break’ the interconnectivity structure of networks through immunized nodes, in order to make the remaining networks more resilient to external attacks [2]. An increasingly large number of research in complex networks (e.g., wireless sensor networks, peer-to-peer networks) are focusing on developing efficient and robust security mechanisms to protect them from malicious attacks. While most of them have been dedicated to designing immunization strategies to prevent attacks in deterministic networks, there are other factors led to uncertain networks we need to consider in realworld applications [3]. To deal with those problems, we propose an eigenvalue-based node immunization scheme that is designed to prevent malware attacks or viruses (these two terms will be used interchangeably in this study) from spreading in real-world networks.