Programmers looking at ways of protecting computers against viruses and infections have been inspired by watching how ants protect their colony when under a threat.
When an ant comes across an intruder, other ants soon come to his aid in order to deal with any unwelcome visitors.
This sort of “swarming intelligence” is currently being tested for use in software by a team at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PPNL).
If it works it could become the basis of a new type of virus protection software and initial results look pretty promising. The digital ants were able to detect a worm on a network of 64 computers.
In order for the ants to be able to carry out their work a digital “sentinel” has to be present on each machine which can then monitor the ants behaviour and forward results to a digital “sergeant” at a central control station which is monitored by humans.
The “Digital Ants” will basically travel round the computer networks on the look out for any potential threats and if they find one, then just like in real life ant colonies, other ants will come along to provide reinforcements, a strategy that is highly effective in real life.
As professor of computer science Errin Fulp said: “In nature, we know that ants defend against threats very successfully.
“They can ramp up their defence rapidly, and then resume routine behaviour quickly after an intruder has been stopped. We were trying to achieve that same framework in a computer system.”
So how many Digital Ants are we talking about here?
According to researcher at PNNL Glenn Fink, the idea is to “deploy 3,000 different types of digital ants, each capable of looking for evidence of a threat.
“As they move about the network, they leave digital trails modelled 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.”
Apparently if this new software takes off it is expected to identify potential threats faster than the virus protection software we currently use, which also has to be regularly updated in order to keep up with the latest threats.
Yep, it might sound like Science fiction but science fiction is fast become science fact these days.
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