An immune system for computer viruses.Trying to mimic the human body's ability to fight off infection, computer scientists are developing immunologically inspired systems to ward off computer viruses. Jeffrey O. Kephart of the IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) Thomas J. Watson Research Center The Thomas J. Watson Research Center is the headquarters for the IBM Research Division. The center is on three sites, with the main laboratory in Yorktown Heights, New York, 45 miles north of New York City, a building in Hawthorne, New York, and offices in Cambridge, in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., reports designing an immune system immune system Cells, cell products, organs, and structures of the body involved in the detection and destruction of foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Immunity is based on the system's ability to launch a defense against such invaders. for computers that "takes much of its inspiration from nature." As in vertebrates, the new system develops and stores "antibodies," enabling a computer to stop computer virus attacks more quickly. "We are also careful to minimize the risk of an autoimmune response," he says, "in which the immune system mistakenly identifies legitimate software as being undesirable." The new immunity program detects known viruses by their computer-code sequences and unknown viruses by their unusual behavior within the computer. Decoy DECOY. A pond used for the breeding and maintenance of water-fowl. 11 Mod. 74, 130; S. C. 3 Salk. 9; Holt, 14 11 East, 571. programs then seek out and trap the viruses. Then the computer extracts the malevolent ma·lev·o·lent adj. 1. Having or exhibiting ill will; wishing harm to others; malicious. 2. Having an evil or harmful influence: malevolent stars. coding, turns on a repair program to fix damaged software, and "immunizes" itself against similar viruses. To forestall fore·stall tr.v. fore·stalled, fore·stall·ing, fore·stalls 1. To delay, hinder, or prevent by taking precautionary measures beforehand. See Synonyms at prevent. 2. an epidemic--a virus spreading through a group of linked computers--infected machines send out "kill signals" to warn other computers of the rampant invader. The signals tell how to kill the new virus as well as similar ones. The rate at which new viruses are created and the cost to businesses of virus damage have grown, Kephart says. More than 2,000 known viruses exist, and, on average, two or three new ones emerge each day. Of more than 100 million personal computer users worldwide, roughly 1 million, he estimates, have had their work affected by viruses. "This technology will gradually be incorporated into IBM's commercial antivirus product during the next year or two," Kephart says. |
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