A Network Clustering Algorithm for Sybil-Attack Resisting

• Published in: IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems Vol. E94.D; no. 12; pp. 2345 - 2352
• Main Authors: EGAWA, Ryusuke, TAKIZAWA, Hiroyuki, KOBAYASHI, Hiroaki, XU, Ling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers 2011
• Subjects: Algorithms; attack edge; Clustering; Computer simulation; Constraining; Networks; Performance enhancement; Random walk; social network; Social networks; sybil attack
• ISSN: 0916-8532; 1745-1361; 1745-1361
• DOI: 10.1587/transinf.E94.D.2345

The social network model has been regarded as a promising mechanism to defend against Sybil attack. This model assumes that honest peers and Sybil peers are connected by only a small number of attack edges. Detection of the attack edges plays a key role in restraining the power of Sybil peers. In this paper, an attack-resisting, distributed algorithm, named Random walk and Social network model-based clustering (RSC), is proposed to detect the attack edges. In RSC, peers disseminate random walk packets to each other. For each edge, the number of times that the packets pass this edge reflects the betweenness of this edge. RSC observes that the betweennesses of attack edges are higher than those of the non-attack edges. In this way, the attack edges can be identified. To show the effectiveness of RSC, RSC is integrated into an existing social network model-based algorithm called SOHL. The results of simulations with real world social network datasets show that RSC remarkably improves the performance of SOHL.