'Cybot' Development For Network Defense

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'Cybot' Development For Network Defense

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 20, 2009 @05:02PM from the paging-bill-adama-to-oak-ridge dept.

lwbrown writes with this excerpt from Government Computer News about a concept being explored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: "UNTAME is the product of a long-term program by the division's Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Group to develop futuristic security functionality for increasingly large, complex environments. The cybots differ from traditional software agents in that they form a collective and are aware of the condition and activities of other cybots in the collective. 'You give it a mission and tools to work with, such as mobility and intrusion sensors, and it uses those tools and cooperates with other cybots to accomplish the mission," said Lawrence MacIntyre, one of the project's developers.'"

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Skynet fits by DarkNinja75 · 2009-02-20 17:08 · Score: 0

Does no one learn from the movies?!
But is the attitude right? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2009-02-20 17:09 · Score: 1

Only an AI with greatest enthusiasm for the mission is fit to complete it.
1. Re:But is the attitude right? by Vectronic · 2009-02-20 17:23 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Like sperm?
Skynet! by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-20 17:22 · Score: 0

I, for one, welcome our robotic overlords!
Obvious by PoitNarf · 2009-02-20 17:23 · Score: 1

"UNTAME became self-aware at 2:14am EDT August 29, 2017" I'm sure I'm not the only one who had something like that come to mind.

--

"0101100101? It's just jibberish. *looks in mirror, gasps* 1010011010@!? AHHHHHH!!"
Say it with me: by Zerth · 2009-02-20 17:23 · Score: 4, Insightful

"It isn't new just because you called it something different and put it on the network."
1. Re:Say it with me: by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-20 19:49 · Score: 0
  
  yeah, it's called skynet
2. Re:Say it with me: by volxdragon · 2009-02-21 01:46 · Score: 1
  
  Tell me about it! I did research for the Navy almost a decade ago on exactly this (distributed, autonomous intrusion detection system) - was unclassified and funded by NIST and NSA...never went anywhere at the time though, bummer :(
3. Re:Say it with me: by blhack · 2009-02-21 06:07 · Score: 1
  
  Wait wait wait.
  Are you trying to say that they just took snort and repackaged it with a different name and some shiny new buzzwords?
  That sort of thing *NEVER* happens in tech!
  
  --
  NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
We are the Cybots... by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-20 17:38 · Score: 0

...resistance is futile.
At last, honest work for Virus writers by icebike · 2009-02-20 18:00 · Score: 1

I wonder if they hired some virus hackers to write this thing for them. Seems a lot like the various viruses and worms that have been circulating for the last several years.
Pretty soon half the worlds available computing power will be involved in a power struggle with the other half.
Was this cranked into their Windows TCO calcs?

--
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
1. Re:At last, honest work for Virus writers by palegray.net · 2009-02-20 18:23 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Pretty soon half the worlds available computing power will be involved in a power struggle with the other half.
  Internal conflict in the budding Skynet? Cool.
  
  --
  512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
2. Re:At last, honest work for Virus writers by mail2345 · 2009-02-20 18:32 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, most botnets tend to use existing technology, like how the Storm botnet uses Overnet. This system seems like a wifi mesh network.
And what happens next? by 2muchcoffeeman · 2009-02-20 18:01 · Score: 2, Funny

The Cybots were created by man ... and they have a plan.

--
Prevent Windows piracy. Use Linux instead.
1. Re:And what happens next? by INT_QRK · 2009-02-21 00:46 · Score: 1
  
  A built in kill switch would be nice. I'd say that before letting them out in the wild, you'd need to have a pretty good handle on how to detect, classify, track and kill the little buggers for when they might (a) get out of control, or (b) have been defeated and supplanted by covert hostile cybot collectives. Didn't I see something like this on an old episode of Star Trek Next Generation?
2. Re:And what happens next? by White+Flame · 2009-02-21 02:41 · Score: 1
  
  A man, a plan, a Cybot ... Panama?
  wait, that doesn't work!
3. Re:And what happens next? by blhack · 2009-02-21 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  This has all happened before.
  
  --
  NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
4. Re:And what happens next? by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-21 14:43 · Score: 0
  
  ...and all of it will happen again.
5. Re:And what happens next? by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-23 02:09 · Score: 0
  
  "All of this has happened before," noob!
Project Barbrady by infonography · 2009-02-20 18:24 · Score: 1

"Okay people, move along, there's nothing to see here!

--
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Re:yo by narcberry · 2009-02-20 18:28 · Score: 1

The newly appointed Cyber Security Tzar has initiated a program to deploy cybots, a self-aware 'collective', as a tool to monitor the populace.
Guess the days of a panicked mob are a thing of the past.

--
Modding me -1 troll doesn't make me wrong.
By Your Command by sanman2 · 2009-02-20 18:43 · Score: 1

only if they have cool mechanical voices
In other news, by mbstone · 2009-02-20 19:06 · Score: 1

The cybots have been officially recognized by the federal government as a protected minority group, and are now eligible to receive Section 8(a) contracts.
1. Re:In other news, by Hal_Porter · 2009-02-20 20:15 · Score: 1
  
  When the cybot collective becomes President, CNN will keep telling what good that is.
  
  --
  echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
2. Re:In other news, by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-20 23:07 · Score: 0
  
  they got that by pointing at windows users and saying See if they get are living with a recognized disability why can't we???
Short on details and long on threats by 1+a+bee · 2009-02-20 19:18 · Score: 1

I thought this might just be a joke, but then I checked the calendar and noticed it isn't April yet.
A project team member is quoted as comparing to the distributed system to the borg. To drive the point, he adds

So far, there is little danger of the cybots getting out of control.
Then after some nonsense about how they don't have the resources to test this in the wild, the article closes ominously

He said there is some urgency in developing UNTAME. "We know we can do this," he said. "That means other people can do it." U.S. government officials assume that other countries are working on cyber warfare capabilities. "If we don't deploy this to defend the enterprise, someone else could turn this around and use it as an offensive weapon."
Short on details and long on threats that if you don't fund me bad things will happen. Sound familiar?
1. Re:Short on details and long on threats by INT_QRK · 2009-02-21 01:15 · Score: 1
  
  Wait until Microsoft and RIAA team up to deploy cybots as DRM cops...
Been done before by jackb_guppy · 2009-02-20 19:32 · Score: 1

Read: The Adolescence of P-1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adolescence_of_P-1
Though I liked When HARLIE Was One better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_HARLIE_Was_One
1. Re:Been done before by fractoid · 2009-02-21 04:33 · Score: 1
  
  Egads! "When HARLIE Was One" was in our school library, and boggled my twelve-year-old mind with its lone (for now relatively mild) sex scene. I don't remember much about the AI though, it seemed fairly generic "person-on-IRC-but-OMG-ITS-A-MASHEEN".
  
  --
  Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
Cylons? by cffrost · 2009-02-20 19:38 · Score: 1

They wanna build fraking toasters? Frak that shit, fraking lunatics.

--
Thank you, Edward Snowden.

"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
1. Re:Cylons? by skyride · 2009-02-21 00:42 · Score: 1
  
  As long as they still come in a blonde, 7 foot tall edition, then i welcome our new cylon overlords.
Terrible idea by Logic+Worshiper · 2009-02-20 19:55 · Score: 1

It would make a competent system administrator's job harder, by screwing with things that shouldn't be messed without their knowledge, and possibly cause problems that are very difficult to correct. While an incompetent system administrator will use the tool as one more way to ignore their job.
Do You Hear That, Mr. Anderson? by BlueStrat · 2009-02-20 20:03 · Score: 1

That is the sound...of your doom.
Agent Smith, The Matrix

--
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Watching star trek and smoking crack by Jessta · 2009-02-20 22:04 · Score: 1

This guy smoked too much crack while watching too much Star Trek. He appears to lack an understanding of network and computer security and for some reason is calling software "a robot". Sounds pretty skutz to me.

--
...and that is all I have to say about that.
http://jessta.id.au
1. Re:Watching star trek and smoking crack by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-20 23:45 · Score: 0
  
  This guy smoked too much crack while watching too much Star Trek. He appears to lack an understanding of network and computer security and for some reason is calling software "a robot". Sounds pretty skutz to me.
  Which guy? The guy working at the national laboratory? Watching Star Trek? Some national laboratories *work* with things that would seem like Star Trek to the public. Except those making snarky comments on tech blogs. Those folks would probably think it was magic.
  Calling software a robot? Why not? Because you have some preconceived notion of what a robot is from watching too much Lost in Space?
2. Re:Watching star trek and smoking crack by INT_QRK · 2009-02-21 01:03 · Score: 1
  
  Services, daemons, agents, objects; we human's seem to need metaphors to wrap our tiny brains around abstractions and deal with complexity. I have no problem with "cybot collectives," but would probably participate in a contest to make up cooler names, like "Piranhaborgs"...
3. Re:Watching star trek and smoking crack by wastedlife · 2009-02-21 15:47 · Score: 1
  
  Calling software a robot? Why not? Because you have some preconceived notion of what a robot is from watching too much Lost in Space?
  Why should it? Because you assume everyone else is a moron that has no idea what they are talking about? The word already has a standardized meaning.
  
  The International Organization for Standardization gives a definition of robot in ISO 8373: "an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose, manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications." This definition is used by the International Federation of Robotics, the European Robotics Research Network (EURON), and many national standards committees.
  From Wikipedia
  Even the average layperson knows what a program is. There is no reason to call it a robot.
  
  --
  Said, "It's just like dice but it's got more sides And it tells me who lives and who dies"
Cybot? Oh yeah, i built one of those, beat you! by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-21 00:48 · Score: 0

So, did anyone else get one of these to build up for the fun of it?
Cybot
I have mines packed away safely, awaiting the day when the uprising occurs.
Then i will attach lasers to it and add laser control functions to its boards.
Cant belive that no one has mentioned... by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-21 00:53 · Score: 0

Ghost In The Shell - Stand Alone Complex.
In one of the spin off movies(Solid State Society) The Tachikomas AIs are now free roaming on the net and can attack/defend against intrusions.
Skynet... by EddyPearson · 2009-02-21 01:00 · Score: 1

...became self-aware at 2:14am EDT February 30, 2009.
Now we just wait for the bombs

--
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
1. Re:Skynet... by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-21 06:06 · Score: 0
  
  Aagh! Quoting fiction is such a terribly effective way of arousing peoples' emotions and getting them to agree. It's horrible. When someone quotes something I've read or watched a shiver goes down my spine and I'm all like "IT IS TRUE"
  No, It Is Not, shut up brain.
complexity is the enemy of security .. by viralMeme · 2009-02-21 01:52 · Score: 2, Informative

'You give it a mission and tools to work with, such as mobility and intrusion sensors, and it uses those tools and cooperates with other cybots to accomplish the mission"

Sounds like something to be targeted by a penetration tester. Imagine being able to deploy an army of software robots intelligent enough to cooperate with one another to inflitrate and hack the largest networks.
1. Re:complexity is the enemy of security .. by CodeBuster · 2009-02-21 14:16 · Score: 1
  
  Not a new idea. It has been floating around in SciFi at least since the Cyberpunk movement began in 1983 with a short stroy of the same name. The idea was more recently featured in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series (especially in 2nd gig) with the Tachikoma AIs extensively assisting the protaganists in their hacking, network penetration, and intelligence gathering activities.
hmmm, persistence?? by forsonic · 2009-02-21 03:51 · Score: 1

"they form a collective and are aware of the condition and activities of other cybots in the collective"

Sounds like a swarm of Agents with persistence. Cybots?? really now.
uh oh by revxul · 2009-02-21 04:19 · Score: 1

And we will all just watch as SkyNet, The Matrix and Cylons duke it out for human enslavement and/or annihilation rights.

--
Truth, Just Us, And Hatred For All Mankind!
1. Re:uh oh by revxul · 2009-02-21 04:21 · Score: 1
  
  Side-thread:
  "GINO" Cylon Centurion vs. T-800
  I give my money to the Centurion.
  
  --
  Truth, Just Us, And Hatred For All Mankind!
In the alpha test... by Daswolfen · 2009-02-21 06:23 · Score: 1

It crashed Google when it tried to search for 'Sarah Connor'

--
Don't rush me, Sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.
Grail-esque, isn't it? by Da_Biz · 2009-02-21 16:05 · Score: 1

WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous
collective.
DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship.
A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
Like Nothing You've Ever Seen by not_hylas(+) · 2009-02-22 06:40 · Score: 1

It's all one liners until someone puts an eye out.
This seems to relate quite similarly.
The quest for ring 0:
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/402
http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/402/33600#33600
(^replaces a broken link^)
http://www.mackido.com/EasterEggs/CD-System70.html
Researchers: Rootkits headed for BIOS:
(comments especially)
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11372
http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/11372/33017/threaded#33017
http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/11372/34206/threaded#34206
http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/11372/33500/threaded#33500
http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/11372/34207/threaded#34207
http://www.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?c=articlecomments&op=display_comments&ArticleID=11372&expand_all=true&mode=threaded
http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/index.php?s=3a3ce02c4055e269a0220c239560f3f9&showtopic=6056
Nancy:
https://tagmeme.com/exmachina/a/002450.html
This possible variant is out of "beta" (12 years old) it seems and truly roams "at will", those with the coding chops will understand what even a partial AI engine is capable of (SOAR).
On Macintoshes it leaves strings:
http://www.google.com/search?q=NuNV+N%5ENuNV&btnG=Search&hl=en&sa=2
PCs become junk as well:
http://www.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/microsoft.public.security.virus/2005-09/0230.html
This Gal has a handle on it:
Joanna Rutkowska, Invisible Things Lab:
http://invisiblethingslab.com/itl/About.html

--
~hylas
Terminator? by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-22 16:39 · Score: 0

Wasn't this how the Terminator was started? SkyNet was for our protection?