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Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Botnet Propagation Control in the Social Internet of Things

Lookup NU author(s): Yizhou Shen

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

© 2014 IEEE. The rapid development of the social Internet of Things (IoT) enhances interconnectivity but also raises significant network security challenges, particularly from botnet attacks that disrupt system stability. Addressing this issue requires effective strategies to control botnet propagation in social IoT environments. This study develops a social IoT botnet propagation model incorporating social factors to analyze their influences on its propagation dynamics. Based on this, a social IoT botnet propagation control framework is constructed, formulating an optimization problem using Markov games. To solve the optimization problem, we propose SD-DRQN (Social-Dynamics Deep Recurrent Q-Network), a novel deep reinforcement learning algorithm that integrates Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) layers to improve learning in dynamic social IoT environments. Experimental results validate the performance of the proposed SD-DRQN across various social IoT scenarios, including complex real-world topologies. The algorithm demonstrates faster convergence, superior generalization, and practical applicability, making it an effective solution for botnet propagation control in real-world social IoT deployments.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Shen S, Hao X, Shen Y, Xu H, Dong J, Fang Z, Wu Z

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: IEEE Internet of Things Journal

Year: 2025

Volume: 12

Issue: 14

Pages: 27481-27495

Print publication date: 15/07/2025

Online publication date: 21/04/2025

Acceptance date: 16/04/2025

Date deposited: 13/05/2025

ISSN (electronic): 2327-4662

Publisher: IEEE

URL: https://doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2025.3562583

DOI: 10.1109/JIOT.2025.3562583

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/c517-8t94


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Foundation of Ministry of Education of China under Grant No. 24YJAZH123
Huzhou Science and Technology Planning Foundation of China under Grant 2023GZ04
Major Science and Technology Research Projects of Zhejiang Province of China under Grant 2025C01074
Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants LZ22F020002, LGF22F010006, and LR23F020001

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