If you’ve been online
for more than 3 seconds, you’re probably aware of spyware or malware or all those other baddies that infect your computer and toast it more thoroughly than a supernova in a microwave oven. Right?

But what if you could take that technology and turn it to from the Dark Side to the Light? Hmmmm?

Microsoft researchers are considering just that. To wit:

Milan Vojnović and colleagues from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, want to make useful pieces of information such as software updates behave more like computer worms: spreading between computers instead of being downloaded from central servers.

The research may also help defend against malicious types of worm, the researchers say….

…Vojnović’s team have designed smarter strategies that can exploit the way some subnets provide richer pickings than others.

The ideal approach uses prior knowledge of the way uninfected computers are spread across different subnets. A worm with that information can focus its attention on the most fruitful subnets – infecting a given proportion of a network using the smallest possible number of probes.

But although prior knowledge could be available in some cases – a company distributing a patch after a previous worm attack, for example – usually such perfect information will not be available. So the researchers have also developed strategies that mean the worms can learn from experience….MORE….

Interesting indeed. I wonder how it will develop?

Oh, and if you’re already infected by malware/spyware, check out these helpful forums.

• SWI Forums
• SpyWare Warrior

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

ps - Looking to spyware proof your computer?