‘DNA-proofing’ for computer systems — a new approach to computer security?

Abstract

Modem day network-centric computing can increasingly be viewed as a vast, extremely involved organism, of which the boundaries are not clear, and most of the constituent parts are unknown from any given viewpoint. It may even become impossible to ensure the security of computing systems in future with current approaches to computer security. On the other hand, nature has been successful in defending its complex biological systems from infection and damage for countless millennia by using highly specialized and evolved immune systems. It is therefore postulated that a highly effective defensive mechanism can be developed, to transparently enforce an acceptable level of security in very extensive and complex computer networks and systems, by building very basic, but specialized autonomous agents, that follow basic rules that can be deduced from biological immune systems. Key to this concept is the biological system’s ability to distinguish what belongs to it and what is foreign and therefore needs to be destroyed. This is done, inter alia, via genetic information contained in the DNA of each cell. Central to the proposed immune model is thus the concept of ‘DNA-proofing’