Quantitative Models of Imperfect Deception in Network Security using Signaling Games with Evidence

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Jeffrey Pawlick and Quanyan Zhu

Deception plays a critical role in many interactions in communication and network security. Game-theoretic models called “cheap talk signaling games” capture the dynamic and information asymmetric nature of deceptive interactions. But signaling games inherently model undetectable deception. In this paper, we investigate a model of signaling games in which the receiver can detect deception with some probability. This model nests traditional signaling games and complete information Stack- elberg games as special cases. We present the pure strategy perfect Bayesian Nash equilibria of the game. Then we illustrate these analytical results with an application to active network defense.