Virus honey-pots to immunise the web

A network of 'honey-pot' PCs would distribute a viral signature file immediately

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have published a plan to rid the internet of viruses using a network of automated virus clean-up systems.

The plan centres on a network of so-called 'honey-pot' computers, which are designed to look like unpatched PCs.

These PCs attract viruses and automatically work out a viral signature file and start to distribute the cure immediately. All the other honey-pots in the network are updated automatically and start to put out countermeasures simultaneously.

The scheme is detailed in an academic paper, entitled Distributive Immunization of Networks Against Viruses Using the 'Honey-Pot' Architecture, written by PhD student Eran Shir, with collaboration from Dr Yuval Shavit and Hebrew University professors Sorin Solomon and Jacob Goldenberg. 

According to the researchers, the system is low cost and scales up well since the larger the network the more efficient it becomes. They claim that the "cure information" can be spread faster than the virus itself.

"The main problem with epidemic vaccine propagation is that it is bound to lag behind the virus," said Shir.

"We suggest giving the vaccine an advantage over the virus by allowing it to leapfrog through a separate, overlapping, partially correlated network. This enables the anti-virus to contain the epidemic efficiently."

Tests revealed that if a network has 50,000 nodes and just 0.4 per cent of those are honey-pots, five per cent of the network will be infected before the immune system halts the virus.

But a 200-million-node network with the same proportion of honey-pots should see just 0.001 per cent of machines becoming infected.

The paper is published in the latest edition of Nature Physics.