Studies on the propagation of malware in mobile networks have revealed that the spread of
malware can be highly inhomogeneous. Platform diversity, contact list utilization by the
malware, clustering in the network structure, etc., can also lead to differing spreading rates.
In this paper, a general formal framework is proposed for leveraging such heterogeneity to
derive optimal patching policies that attain the minimum aggregate cost due to the spread of
malware and the surcharge of patching. Using Pontryagin's Maximum Principle for a …

Studies of propagation of malware in mobile network have revealed that the spread of
malware can be highly inhomogeneous across different regions. Heterogeneous rates of
contact can also be due to diverse platforms, utilization of contact lists by the malware,
clustered nature of the network, etc. In this paper, we propose a general formal framework to
leverage such heterogeneity information into devising optimal patching policies that attain
the minimum aggregate cost due to the spread of malware and the surcharge of patching …