# Spatial-Temporal Moving Target Defense: A Markov Stackelberg Game Model

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.10390 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.10390/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 24 Feb 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Efficient Morphology-Control Co-Design via Stackelberg Proximal Policy Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.15388/) (2026)
- [Pandering in a Flexible Representative Democracy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09986/) (2022)
- [A Factored MDP Approach To Moving Target Defense With Dynamic Threat Modeling and Cost Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.08934/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Moving target defense has emerged as a critical paradigm of protecting a vulnerable system against persistent and stealthy attacks. To protect a system, a defender proactively changes the system configurations to limit the exposure of security vulnerabilities to potential attackers. In doing so, the defender creates asymmetric uncertainty and complexity for the attackers, making it much harder for them to compromise the system. In practice, the defender incurs a switching cost for each migration of the system configurations. The switching cost usually depends on both the current configuration and the following configuration. Besides, different system configurations typically require a different amount of time for an attacker to exploit and attack. Therefore, a defender must simultaneously decide both the optimal sequences of system configurations and the optimal timing for switching. In this paper, we propose a Markov Stackelberg Game framework to precisely characterize the defender's spatial and temporal decision-making in the face of advanced attackers. We introduce a relative value iteration algorithm that computes the defender's optimal moving target defense strategies. Empirical evaluation on real-world problems demonstrates the advantages of the Markov Stackelberg game model for spatial-temporal moving target defense.