Bandit strategies for blindly attacking networks

Abstract

Can we optimally attack networks (in terms of disrupting the ability of the nodes in the network from communicating) when the network topology is unknown? In this paper, we show that it is not always possible to do so when the network topology is unknown a priori. Specifically, we develop multi armed bandit-based techniques that enable the attacker to learn the best network attack strategies and also discuss the potential limitations that the attacker faces in such blind scenarios.