Communications of the ACM
Fighting Off Virtual Attacks
Researchers at the University of California at Irvine used concepts from nature to try to secure software that runs on digital devices.
Credit: Natureduca.com
University of California, Irvine researchers say they have taken ideas from nature and applied them to software that runs on digital devices. "Our solution is to make every software program unique, so that hackers have to find different attacks for different targets," says UC Irvine professor Michael Franz.
In biology, diversity is strength, and the researchers are using this concept to reduce the effect of software errors by developing mechanisms that can create a unique version of every program for every person. Although this strategy will not eliminate hacking completely, it will prevent widespread damage, increasing the cost of attempting cyberattacks and making it more difficult to target a specific person or organization.
Franz says using multiple versions of the same software is not a new idea, but this is the first time it has been attempted on the scale or at the low price point of this solution. "In our approach, subtly different versions of the same software are created automatically 'in the cloud,' in a matter that is invisible to both the software developers and the end users," he says.
From UC Irvine News
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