US security researchers are using "swarming intelligence" found
in the insect world as a model to develop new defences against
computer worms and viruses.
Glenn Fink, a research scientist at Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory in Richland, Washington came up with the idea.
Fink asked a team of researchers from at
Wake Forest University (WFU) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
to join the project.
The researchers plan to duplicate the "swarming intelligence"
used by ants to deal with intruders in security software.
The software will send thousands of "digital ants" through
computer networks to monitor for cybercriminal intrusions such as
the
conficker worm.
If one detects a problem, it alerts all the others to focus on
that part of the network to join the fight and alert system
administrators.
"Our idea is to deploy 3,000 different types of digital ants,
each looking for evidence of a threat," said Errin Fulp, professor
of computer science at WFU.
As they move about the network, they leave digital trails
modelled after the scent trails ants in nature use to guide other
ants.
"Each time a digital ant identifies some evidence, it is
programmed to leave behind a stronger scent to attract more ants
and produce the swarm that marks a potential computer infection,"
he said.
The new approach to security is best suited for large networks
that share many identical machines, such as those found in
governments, large corporations and universities, said Fulp.