Applying game theory to analyze attacks and defenses in virtual coordinate systems

Virtual coordinate systems provide an accurate and efficient service that allows hosts on the Internet to determine latency to arbitrary hosts based on information provided by a subset of participating nodes. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the service can be severely impacted by compromised nodes providing misleading information. We define and use a game theory framework in order to identify the best attack and defense strategies assuming that the attacker is aware of the defense mechanisms. Our approach leverages concepts derived from the Nash equilibrium to model more powerful adversaries. We consider attacks that target the latency estimation (inflation, deflation, oscillation) and defense mechanisms that combine outlier detection with control theory to deter adaptive adversaries. We apply the game theory framework to demonstrate the impact and efficiency of these attack and defense strategies using a well-known virtual coordinate system and real-life Internet data sets.