Not Again: Friendly 'Worms' Could Spread Software Fixes
Tom Simonite writes on NewScientistTech.com:
Microsoft researchers are hoping to use "information epidemics" to distribute software patches more efficiently.More here.
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.
Software worms spread by self-replicating. After infecting one computer they probe others to find new hosts. Most existing worms randomly probe computers when looking for new hosts to infect, but that is inefficient, says Vojnović, because they waste time exploring groups or "subnets" of computers that contain few uninfected hosts.
Note: It would appear that bad ideas have a tendency to be recirculated every few years... -ferg
posted by Fergie @ 2/15/2008 03:37:00 PM
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