title: [Birth and death process of computer viruses].
abstract: The daily variations in the number of computer viruses found attaching to e-mails and the number of accesses to the home page of a national institute in Japan are examined. The power spectral densities (PSD) of the variation in the computer viruses show a time-correlation characteristic of Markov process, but the daily access number does not (identified as white noise). Like biological viruses, the variation in the computer viruses can be described by the birth-and-death model known as a Markov process.
authors.affiliation: fumi@nihs.go.jp
authors.forename: Katsunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Segawa
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Kotoko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.forename: Yuzuru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hayashi
mesh_terms: D016494:Computer Security / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008390:Markov Chains; D013997:Time Factors