The Swarm Intelligence Network Security Concept

Posted by Sierra Monica B. in Security on 09 28th, 2009 | no responses

Researchers at the Wake Forest University developed a new concept in computer security called Swarm Intelligence. It involves using digital ants to fight against computer worms detected across the networks.
The so-called digital ants are wandering through the computer network in searching for different threats including those programs that self-replicate in order to steal private data and provide unauthorized access to the systems. When one ant detects a warm it calls its “army” of ants to point to it, alerting network administrators to start investigating the issue.

Swarm Intelligence is not only efficient, but is said to be able to adapt fast to the slight variations of malicious software.
To solve the problem of high resource consume when deep scans are performed, Glenn Fink, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, decided to mimic ants behavior and tested the system on a network with 64 computers. The study was conducted this summer when a worm was introduced into the network and the ants found it successfully.

This approach is suited for networks used in large corporations, universities and governments, which have a large number of identical computer systems.

“Our idea is to deploy 3,000 different types of digital ants, each looking for evidence of a threat,” said Errin Fulp, Wake Forest Professor of Computer Science. “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.”