Human virus defences aid infected computers
Studies on the body's immune system have inspired a new way of protecting computer networks from viruses and hackers.
Researchers have been trying to develop artificial immune systems for computer networks for more than a decade, says Steve Cayzer, a computational neuroscientist at HP Labs in Bristol, UK. Most approaches tend to mimic the way the white blood cells of the immune system watch out for molecules that are not "self", such as proteins made by viruses, bacteria and parasites.
The Nottingham team's approach is instead based on an alternative model of how the immune system works, called danger theory. According to this, the immune system does not attack foreign molecules whenever it detects them, but only if they start to cause trouble, says Julie McLeod, an immunologist at the University of the West of England in Bristol.
Comments
Be the first to write a comment
You must me logged in to write a comment.