What's good about computer viruses

Friday, 5 March 2004, 5:23 PM EST

Ahhh-choo! Ahh, lucky you. Every time you are exposed to a virus, your immune system builds resistance to that particular bug. So, why can't we build computers that do the same thing?

"If our bodies functioned like computers, we'd be extinct," said Steve Hofmeyr, founder and chief scientist of Sana Security. "The body is a dynamic place that profits from changes," he told TechNewsWorld. "Our immune systems adapt with us from birth to puberty and through the aging process."

Perhaps the promise of biological computing is that our machines will grow up, rather than grow obsolete. But while it's easy to draw analogies between how the human immune system works and how virus protection software programs should work, mimicking nature is no simple task.

By Diane Stresing at TechNewsWorld.

[ Read more ]

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