Not Again: Friendly 'Worms' Could Spread Software Fixes

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via NewScientistTech.com.

[snip]

Microsoft researchers are hoping to use "information epidemics" to
distribute software patches more efficiently.

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.

[snip]

More:
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn13318-friendly-worms-could-spr
ead-software-fixes.html

It would appear that bad ideas have a tendency to be recirculated
every few years... :-)

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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