Optimizing node infiltrations in complex networks by a local search based heuristic.

•We present a new problem concerning the infiltration of a set of nodes in a network.•As optimizer, we propose a metaheuristic based on constructive method and local search.•To be more efficient, the proposal employs betweenness centrality update techniques.•We perform a thorough comparison with regards to baseline metaheuristics.•The proposal proves to be very competitive, specially for large and hard test cases.