Abstract
Ph.D.
This thesis is a theoretical treatise on a proposed new computer security system, based
on a biological immune system. Modem day network-centric computing is fast
approaching the density and complexity of biological organisms, making biological
and computer analogies relevant and meaningful. The success of biological immune
systems in protecting life over countless millennia is well known.
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. It can be done by building very basic,
but specialized autonomous software agents, functioning in a hierarchical system, that
follow basic rules that can be deduced from biological immune systems.
The computer security model proposed in this thesis does not require radical new
technologies and it is extremely simple. The complexity however, lies in the effective
implementation of the model. Three building blocks support the computer immune
model: Biology, software agent technology and nanotechnology.
The main features of the model are:
• Firstly, it allows computer systems to automatically and transparently protect
themselves, by using mobile autonomous intelligent software agents in an
artificial immune system, based on biological immune systems.
• Secondly, it allows computer systems to be pro-active in protecting themselves by
being able to discern between which components are part of themselves (trusted
system), and which components are foreign and may thus be harmful.
Although part of the model relies on specialist human collaboration and international
security standards, the main thrust is the heuristic ability of the proposed computer
immune system. It allows systems to learn to recognize and cope with previously
unknown cyber-antigens, automatically share the information amongst the
participating computer systems, and thus 'inoculate' them to render them immune to
similar attacks.