Investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zhang, Linda(Linda E.)
Other Authors: Una-May O'Reilly and Erik Hemberg.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122992
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author Zhang, Linda(Linda E.)
author2 Una-May O'Reilly and Erik Hemberg.
author_facet Una-May O'Reilly and Erik Hemberg.
Zhang, Linda(Linda E.)
author_sort Zhang, Linda(Linda E.)
collection MIT
description This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1229922019-11-22T03:23:22Z Investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems Zhang, Linda(Linda E.) Una-May O'Reilly and Erik Hemberg. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2019 Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-57). Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) cyberattacks continue to increase and cause disruptions in both industry and politics. As more critical information and services are provided through networks, it becomes more important to keep these networks available. However, since cyber-adversaries continuously change and adapt, stationary defense strategies do not effectively secure networks against attacks. We modeled attacker-defender interactions using competitive coevolutionary algorithms and investigated Nash equilibria within these cybersecurity problems. In particular, we examined and presented variations on two existing algorithms that look for Nash equilibria: NashSolve and HybridCoev. To compare these algorithms' performances against other existing heuristics, we considered multiple evaluation methods: the first calculates average fitness scores, the second creates a compendium of MEU, MinMax, and inverse Pareto front ratio scores, and the third utilizes Nash averaging. Although NashSolve and HybridCoev do not perform significantly better on average for either attacker or defender populations relative to other heuristics in these evaluations, they are able to produce strong individual strategies. by Linda Zhang. M. Eng. M.Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 2019-11-22T00:00:36Z 2019-11-22T00:00:36Z 2019 2019 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122992 1127291730 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 57 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Zhang, Linda(Linda E.)
Investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems
title Investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems
title_full Investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems
title_fullStr Investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems
title_full_unstemmed Investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems
title_short Investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding Nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems
title_sort investigating coevolutionary algorithms for finding nash equilibria in cybersecurity problems
topic Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122992
work_keys_str_mv AT zhanglindalindae investigatingcoevolutionaryalgorithmsforfindingnashequilibriaincybersecurityproblems