October 24, 1997. Copyright, 1997, Graphic News. All rights 
reserved

ÔDigital immune systemÕ fights Internet viruses
By Oliver Burkeman

London, October 24,Graphic News- AMERICAN programmers are using 
human biology as an analogy for the development of techniques to 
combat the spread of computer viruses in cyberspace.
	In the November issue of Scientific American, Jeffrey Kephart and 
his colleagues at IBM's Thomas J Watson Research Center in New 
York describe how the human immune system inspired an innovation 
that could protect all computers connected to the Internet from a 
new virus within minutes.
As their name suggests, viruses Ð which each year infect around 
one million computers and cost millions of dollars to fight Ð 
have long been likened to biological pathogens.  A virus that 
attaches to software files or hard disks resembles an infectious 
agent invading a host cell in the body and using it to replicate 
itself. And fragments of code that recur in many of the 10,000 
currently known viruses can be used, like genes, to chart their 
ÔevolutionÕ.   
But the growth of the Internet has seen a rapid escalation in 
viruses spread via downloaded data and e-mail attachments. As 
communications software becomes automated and more terminals are 
permanently connected to the Internet, viruses become 
decreasingly dependent on humans actively sharing software, and 
they replicate much faster. Even in 1988, when cyberspace was 
still sparsely populated, an "Internet worm" program infected 
hundreds of computers in a day. The problem has become a crisis.
The IBM researchersÕ solution Ð Ôan immune system for cyberspaceÕ 
- is already functioning on a prototype network. Any computer on 
the network that encounters suspicious code automatically sends 
it to a central virus-detecting computer which persuades hidden 
viruses to reveal themselves by luring them to infect ÔdecoyÕ 
programs.
If a virus is found, the computer detects its unique signature 
and prescribes a solution which is transmitted around the 
network, permanently immunising all machines connected to it - 
not just the computer that first complained. The whole process 
lasts less than five minutes.
If this system were applied to the Internet, say the authors, it 
would be Ôpossible, in principle, to immunize the entire PC world 
against an emerging virus very rapidly.Õ
ÔThe general reaction has been sceptical, but there is hidden 
admiration too,Õ said Nick Fitzgerald, editor of Virus Bulletin, 
which organised of a recent conference where the IBM team 
demonstrated their prototype. ÔThey've stolen a march on the rest 
of the industry.Õ 
But just as biologists have come to recognise infectious diseases 
as a competing form of life they can control but not eliminate, 
the researchers do not foresee the death of the virus. Instead, 
they speculate that viruses and digital immune systems may be 
Ôprecursors of an eventual rich ecosystem of artificial life-forms 
that will live, die, co-operate and prey on one another in 
cyberspace.Õ 
/ENDS

Sources: Scientific American November 1997, Virus Bulletin (+44 
1235 555139)