On a Network Security Game Model

To build a security system using game theoretic ideas, a formulation of the generic network security as a game is important. A game model capable of modeling the typical security games must be constructed. Such a generic model would be a convenient framework to derive many game models specifically optimized/targeted for a particular kind of attack. Such a targeted game model when instantiated with the inputs from a given security situation will result in a game. Given a game, the favorable equilibrium can be computed and the corresponding strategy can be identified leading to the equilibrium. Given the strategy, the actions/action-sequence at each state can be identified. Given the action/action sequence for the game at each state, the corresponding computer-network-administrative actions amounting to the prescribed action in the game could be resolved. Thus, acting according to such a prescribed protocol, an effective defense can be built for the network attacks. The main condition for the effectiveness of this system rests on how well the game can represent the security situation. Here we present a network security game model. The computational behavior of the model and the games instantiated through it, must be with in the practical useful bounds, so that the defense would be effective against attacks. The analyses and design of the model is presented along with validation through numerical simulation. We present the details of the deployment of the game model to construct a game repository in the security system.