Localized attacks on spatially embedded networks with dependencies

Yehiel Berezin, Amir Bashan, Michael M. Danziger, Daqing Li, Shlomo Havlin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

144 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many real world complex systems such as critical infrastructure networks are embedded in space and their components may depend on one another to function. They are also susceptible to geographically localized damage caused by malicious attacks or natural disasters. Here, we study a general model of spatially embedded networks with dependencies under localized attacks. We develop a theoretical and numerical approach to describe and predict the effects of localized attacks on spatially embedded systems with dependencies. Surprisingly, we find that a localized attack can cause substantially more damage than an equivalent random attack. Furthermore, we find that for a broad range of parameters, systems which appear stable are in fact metastable. Though robust to random failures - even of finite fraction - if subjected to a localized attack larger than a critical size which is independent of the system size (i.e., a zero fraction), a cascading failure emerges which leads to complete system collapse. Our results demonstrate the potential high risk of localized attacks on spatially embedded network systems with dependencies and may be useful for designing more resilient systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8934
JournalScientific Reports
Volume5
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 Mar 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

Funding

We acknowledge the LINC (no. 289447 funded by the EC’s Marie-Curie ITN program (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-ITN)) and MULTIPLEX (EU-FET project 317532) projects, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Israel Science Foundation, ONR and DTRA for financial support. Daqing Li acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61104144) and National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB725404).

FundersFunder number
EC’s Marie-CurieFP7-PEOPLE-2011-ITN
EU-FET
MULTIPLEX
Office of Naval Research
Defense Threat Reduction Agency
Seventh Framework Programme289447, 317532
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
National Natural Science Foundation of China61104144
Israel Science Foundation
National Key Research and Development Program of China2012CB725404

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