Ants Vs. Worms — Computer Security Mimics Nature

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Help Net Security: "In the never-ending battle to protect computer networks from intruders, security experts are deploying a new defense modeled after one of nature's hardiest creatures — the ant. Unlike traditional security devices, which are static, these 'digital ants' wander through computer networks looking for threats ... When a digital ant detects a threat, it doesn't take long for an army of ants to converge at that location, drawing the attention of human operators who step in to investigate. 'Our idea is to deploy 3,000 different types of digital ants, each looking for evidence of a threat,' [says Wake Forest Professor of Computer Science Errin Fulp.] 'As they move about the network, they leave digital trails modeled 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. Stronger scent trails attract more ants, producing the swarm that marks a potential computer infection.'"

Comments

Re:ridiculous references

[buchner.johannes]

They are talking about an ant-based algorithm, often used in optimization (routing, for example). Some information is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_Ants and here.

Re:ridiculous references

[buchner.johannes]

Second link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant_colony_optimization (sorry)

I think this is just some theoretical research that got picked up by someone never heard of Ant algorithms (it sounds impressive when you hear it the first time), but it can often be outperformed.

I can defeat the ants

[t0qer]

I just gotta run..
%SystemRoot%\system32\magnify.exe

So... bugs?

[jamesh]

If I wanted 3000 bugs swarming inside my computer i'd run Windows.