-
Oct29
Digital ‘Ants’ Take on Computer Worms
Author: Susanta K Beura; Filed under: Computer & Internet, Virus; Tagged as: ant colony, anti virus software, antivirus software, ants, biological counterparts, cpu utilization, entire system, northwest national laboratory, pacific northwest, pacific northwest national laboratory, pheromone, security threat, sentinels, sergeant, sergeants, suspicious activity, swarm intelligence, technical details, virus program, wake forest university
No CommentsDigital ants could soon be crawling through your computer’s hard drive, but don’t worry, they are there to help.
Scientists from Wake Forest University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have created an army of digital ants and their superior officers, digital sergeants and sentinels, to search out viruses, worms and other malware.
The new antivirus software could provide better protection while freeing up valuable hardware.
“We are using the ants to sense something very basic, like a connection rate,” said Errin Fulp, a professor of computer science at Wake Forest University who helped develop the digital ants.
“Then we collect that evidence which points us to a particular infection or security threat,” said Fulp.
Like their biological counterparts, each individual ant is not very bright. A connection rate, CPU utilization or one of about 60 other technical details is all they can sense. When an ant detects something unusual, it leaves a digital pheromone, a tiny digital sense that says something unusual is going on here, and that other ants should check it out.
The digital ants report any suspicious activity to a digital sentinel, a program designed to watch over a set of computers in a network. The sentinel sorts through all the information the ants gather, and if its suspicious, passes the information on to a digital sergeant. The sergeant then alerts the human supervisor, who can the deal with the problem.
The sentinels and sergeants reward the ants for finding problems. If an ant doesn’t find enough problems it “dies” off, although a minimum number is always maintained.
If a particular kind of ant finds lots of problems then more of them are created to monitor the problem. The entire system is modeled off of a normal ant colony and uses “swarm intelligence” to find and diagnose problems.
The beauty of using digital ants, instead of a traditional anti-virus program, is their flexibility. Traditional anti-virus software usually scans constantly or on a set time schedule. Constantly scanning for threats is effective, but uses a lot of computer resources, resources that could be better spent doing something else.
Scanning at certain times, usually at night, optimizes computer usage, but it leaves a computer more vulnerable. Since the number of ants rises and falls with number of problems being detected, it can free up computer hardware to perform calculations when an attack isn’t happening. If at attack is happening, more ants can quickly be created to help deal with it.
The researchers created four digital ants of the 64 types then eventually want. To test their effectiveness, they set up a bank of computers and released three worms into the ant-infested Linux-based computers. The four digital ants in the computers had never seen the viruses before, yet identified the virus by only monitoring four very specific aspects of the computers.
Site Status
Freelance Jobs At Scriptlance
- Need 2000 Members 4 Social NetI just finished setting up a new social networking site and need vto jumpstart the site with at least 2000 – 3000 members – so this is for someone who is good at diverting traffic or who has a social site that he wants to move to a new platform… This is also geographical area specific
- JoomlaNeed to add some features inside phocadownload. Please do not bid if you do not have experience and ability to complete project fast and make a good work. Need this done in not more than a week since it is is not a lot of modification. Would love to have reliable and experienced person to work with since I have a lot more joomla projects that are coming. Project description: This component is phoca download that I like because it has play and preview features but I need following to be done. …
- Phpmotion/calender/flowplayer1) Replace Phpmotion video player with flowplayer. 2) Integrate and set me up to be able to stream live video on the main player, also ability to have links/ads/commercials on the player. (Maybe a chat box under the live video, but not a current necessity.) 3) A dynamic ad box next to the live feed that I can manually post links as the live feed plays. 4) Add an extra advertising slot below the video player. 5) Add an extra advertising slot on the members profile page. Top and Side. 5) B…
- Embed Email Subs. + Rss TickerA campaign to re-legalize hemp in one state needs to build an email list of supporters quickly. PART 1 We imagine an email subscription box with two links at the bottom, one says info and leads to the site, the other says embed and will open to display the code so supporters can post the subscription box on their site. The background of the email box would be a design that relates to the site and inspires action in supporters. Info collected will need to be name and email address. All data w…
- Sonar File Viewer And Gps MappI am looking for a quality coder to create a Side Scan Sonar Application for Windows XP/Vista/7 to playback Multibeam Sonar Files in a Graphical view, live viewing of gps tracks on chart and view Snapshot images from Sonar recordings. – Import/Export multiple sonar files to user created directories in dedicated MyProject folder in users My Documents – View sonar and snapshot files in preview format and display file data: time/date, length, #of pings, description, ect – Ability for user to en…
- Swoopo.com Auctions CloneIm looking for a team to develop a swoopo.com auctions clone in functions with a new aspect and in spanish language (translations could be done by me) I dont think that i have to give more details , just visit the web to see the features.
- Tv On Pc SoftwareLooking to rebrand a TV on PC Software application. The app should be windows XP – windows 7 Compatible. I will also need monthly channel updates. If you have a Mac version I would also be interested. I am not looking to make something from scratch so please dont ask. If you have please open a PMB with more details. Sample of the App is a plus.
- Website Design WorkHello, I am looking for an experienced Web designer to build some simple website pages as a test with the intention to have him build sites on a fulltime basis. The designer should have excellent experience with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, CSS, & other web designing tools. Joomla experience would be an asset. I am only looking for experienced designers that can build html (with flash, etc.) professional sites in excellent time frames (1 day for 3 pages if i give you an exact example s…
- Web Template Html+css+jqueryWe have built a Job Board site, and are looking for someone to help us out with the design part of the site. CSS+HTML+JQuery for the job board template. This is what we expect: – main welcome page +++ header >>>>> company logo on the left end >>>>> login fields on the right end >>>>> horizontal menu bar +++ left sidebar >>>>> Quicklinks >>>>> latest members with logo +++ main area >>>>> list of lates…
- Chatroulette Clone SiteNeed a 1:1 clone of ChatRoulette.com The script/source should have easy to understand comments, should we need to hire more programmers in the future. If the project is successful, expect future opportunities for employment. Project should make use of Flashs new "RTMFP" , Client-to-Client cam connection – like on chatroulette – to save the traffic.
Partner links
Breaking News
- HC order fuels resentment in ranksThe chorus for equality in the armed forces is only growing. On the one hand, women officers have been granted permanent commission. On the other, ex-servicemen in Bangalore are out on the streets – their demand ‘one rank, one pension’.…
- 'Pak plotted' major terror plot foiledA major terror plot was foiled this morning with the arrest of two terror suspects who were plotting attacks on Mumbai’s key installations. The two terrorists who have been identified as Abdul Latif and Riyaaz Abu Ali were planning to carry out attacks on ONGC installations as well as crowded places like the Mangaldas market in South Mumbai as well as the Thakkar Mall in the suburban area of the city. Following the arrest of two suspected Hizb terrorists by Mumbai ATS in Gujarat, two more arrests are also e…
Our Friends
Twitter links powered by Tweet This v1.6.1, a WordPress plugin for Twitter.