Modeling the Spread of Computer Viruses under the Effects of Infected External Computers and Removable Storage Media

This paper is intended to investigate the effects of infected external computers and removable storage media on the spread of computer viruses. To this end, a new dynamical model, which has four compartments, is proposed. The analysis of the model shows that the unique equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. This result is well suited for numerical implementation. An illustration of the influences of infected external computers and removable storage media is also included. Furthermore, it is found that (1) infected external computers and removable storage media can both accelerate the viral spread; (2) infected removable storage media can pose a greater threat than infected external computers.