A worm is a malicious agent that propagates across network of devices creating negative impacts on the devices it registers onto. There is very limited information in cybersecurity about worm behavior across networks of devices, particularly in large scale networks (e.g. campus networks, office networks, IoT etc.).

Most of the current understanding about worm behavior has been established through comparison to microbial worms (biological studies). Studies in virology and pathological studies on how worms, viruses and diseases spread spatially and temporally have been particularly useful. However, there is no evidential information in the cybersecurity domain on such behaviors and no clear model exists.

This project aims to model and estimate the propagation path and behaviors of worms across large networks. Those that are highly relevant to our experimentation currently include randomized worm propagation for Denial of Service attacks, ransomeware, malware, sniffing and spoofing attacks.

• Towards an Experimental Testbed to Study Cyber Worm Behaviors in Large Scale Networks