Communications of the ACM
Web Sites That Can Take a Punch
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a system to keep Web servers running even when they are under attack from cybercriminals. The MIT system monitors the programs running on a computer to determine their normal range of behavior, and during an attack the system refuses to let the programs stray outside of that predetermined normal range.
In sites with large banks of servers, the MIT system gets several chances to find the best response to an attack. The process of recognizing an attack, testing a number of countermeasures, and deploying the most effective methods, can be completed in a few seconds.
"The idea is that you've got hundreds of machines out there," says MIT professor Martin Rinard. "We’re saying, 'Okay, fine, you can take out six or 10 of my 200 machines,' [but] by observing what happens with the executions of those six or 10 machines, we'll be able to deploy patches out to protect the rest of the machines."
From MIT News
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