Nematodes: The Making of 'Beneficial' Network Worms

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

Of course, this is not news to any of you who follow the
"Daily Dave" mailing list.

And for the record, I think it is a really bad idea.

Via eWeek:

[snip]

Convinced that businesses will use nonmalicious worms to cut down on network security costs, a high-profile security 
researcher is pushing ahead with a new framework for creating a "controlled worm" that can be used for beneficial 
purposes.

Dave Aitel, vulnerability researcher at New York-based Immunity Inc., unveiled a research-level demo of the "Nematode" 
framework at the Hack In The Box confab in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, insisting that good worms will become an important 
part of an organization's security strategy.

"We're trying to change the way people think," Aitel said in an interview with Ziff Davis Internet News. "We don't want 
people to think this is impossible. It's entirely possible to create and use beneficial worms and it's something 
businesses will be deploying in the future."

For years, security experts have debated the concept of using good worms to seek and destroy malicious worms. Some 
believe that it's time to use the worms' tactics against them and build good worms that fix problems but the chaos and 
confusion associated with self-propelled replicating programs have left others unconvinced.

Aitel is among those who believe it is "inevitable" that worm technology can significantly reduce the cost of 
disinfecting and maintaining a corporate network.

[snip]

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1867317,00.asp

- ferg


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

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