A SEIR Model Epidemic of Virus on the Online Social Network

Vigorous development of computer technology has made computers play an integral role in people’s lives, but at the same time propagation of the virus on a computer network also cost a great loss to the people. So the research on the mechanism of computer virus propagation and pointing out the key factors in the propagation of the virus has a significant influence on the prevention of computer virus and can also promote the development of relevant policies. The paper researched the influence of the user re-login frequency, the average number of friends on the user’s friend list and the initial spread rate of the virus on the social networks during the epidemic of the propagation of the computer virus. By the means of mathematical analysis, an SEIR model to describe the epidemic of the virus on the online social network is established in this paper. The research shows that the re-login frequency of the user and the average friend number of the user would make a significant influence on the virus propagation. The two factors enhance the risk of a virus outbreak in the social network, at the same time. Subject Categories and Descriptors I.2.10 [Information Security]: Virus Analysis; I.4.10 [Model Analysis] General Terms: Social Networks, Computer Virus