Cascade control and defense in complex networks

A general method to reduce the size of cascades of overload failures triggered by attacks on or failures of highly loaded nodes was analyzed. On the 'intentional removals' (IR) of nodes and edges before the propagation of the cascade, the method was based. The method consisted of costless modifications to the network structure. It was found that the size of the cascade can be drastically reduced with the IR of nodes having small load and/or edges having large excess of load.