Through interdiction models, we infer the vulnerabilities inherent in an operational system. This chapter presents four applications of interdiction modeling: (i) to delay an adversary’s development of a first nuclear weapon; (ii) to understand vulnerabilities in an electric power system; (iii) to locate sensors in a municipal water network; and (iv) to secure a border against a nuclear smuggle...

We study the Maximum Flow Network Interdiction Problem (MFNIP). We present two classes of polynomially separable valid inequalities for Cardinality MFNIP. We also prove the integrality gap of the LP relaxation of Wood’s [19] integer program is not bounded by a constant factor, even when the LP relaxation is strengthened by our valid inequalities. Finally, we provide an approximation-factor-pres...

In the present work an attempt is being made to reduce the Maximum Flow Network Interdiction Problem (MFNIP) in to the Subset Sum Problem so as to get some algorithms solvable in polynomial time. Previously developed algorithms are either applicable to some special cases of MFNIP or they do not have a constant performance guarantee. Our reduction has paved the way towards the development of ful...

In this note, we analyze a bilevel interdiction problem, where the follower’s program is a parametrized continuous knapsack. Based on the structure of the problem and an inverse optimization strategy, we propose for its solution an algorithm with worst-case complexity O(n). Keywords— Bilevel programming, Continuous knapsack problem, Polynomial time. 1 Model Recently, a number of papers have bee...

Stackelberg games have been widely used to model interactions between attackers and defenders in a broad array of security domains. One related approach involves plan interdiction, whereby a defender chooses a subset of actions to block (remove), and the attacker constructs an optimal plan in response. In previous work, this approach has been introduced in the context of Markov decision process...

Motivated by denial-of-service network attacks, we introduce the symmetric interdiction model, where both the interdictor and the optimizer are subject to the same constraints of the underlying optimization problem. We give a general framework that relates optimization to symmetric interdiction for a broad class of optimization problems. We then study the symmetric matching interdiction problem...

We present a Stackelberg game model of security in which the defender chooses a mitigation strategy that interdicts potential attack actions, and the attacker responds by computing an optimal attack plan that circumvents the deployed mitigations. First, we offer a general formulation for deterministic plan interdiction as a mixed-integer program, and use constraint generation to compute optimal...

We formulate and analyze a spatial queueing model concerning a terrorist who is attempting to drive a nuclear or radiological weapon toward a target in a city center. In our model, imperfect radiation sensors form a circular wall around the periphery of the city, and vehicles setting off sensor alarms (representing a terrorist or a nuisance alarm) arrive randomly at the perimeter of a circle (r...