Prestige-based peer sampling service: Interdisciplinary approach to secure gossip

The Peer Sampling Service (PSS) has been proposed as a method to initiate and maintain the set of connections between nodes in unstructured peer to peer (P2P) networks. The PSS usually relies on gossip-style communication where participants exchange their links in a randomized way. However, the PSS network organization can be easily modified by malicious nodes running a “hub attack", in which they achieve a leading structural position. From this pres- tigious status, the malicious nodes can severely affect the overlay and achieve several application dependent advantages. We present a novel method to overcome this attack and provide results from simulation experiments that validate our claim. This method is in- spired by a simple technique used to detect social leaders in firm’s organizations that is based on the social (structural) “prestige" of actors.