Title: PeerCredential: a reputation-based trust framework for Peer-to-Peer applications

Authors: Zhen Yu, William Sears, Yong Guan

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA. ' Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA. ' Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

Abstract: In peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, peers (i.e., users) often have to request services from some unfamiliar peers (i.e., resources) that could be altruistic, selfish, or even malicious. We propose a reputation-based trust framework PeerCredential to motivate selfish peers to cooperate and minimise the risk from malicious peers. We use reputation to measure quality of resources| services and trust to quantify trustworthiness of peers. We also design a number of strategies for economic resources to maximise their profit. Simulation results show the framework motivates economic resources to provide high-quality services and effectively differentiates malicious resources from normal ones.

Keywords: reputation; trust; peer-to-peer applications; P2P; information security; computer security; trustworthiness; simulation; systems assurance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICS.2007.013955

International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2007 Vol.1 No.3, pp.256 - 277

Published online: 05 Jun 2007 *

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