Biological viruses are researched by doctors for prevention, but when computers get infected with viruses like “Code Red” and “I Love You,” a different type of doctor is needed.
Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, assistant professor of computer science at The University of Memphis, along with other scientists are developing new ways to protect computers from those pesky computer bugs by creating new virus combat programs like Security Agents for Network Traffic Analysis, or SANTA.
SANTA is partially funded by The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which is the central research and development organization for the United States Department of Defense.
SANTA, designed by Dasgupta and Hal Brian of the Intelligent Security Systems Research Group, is used to monitor “abnormalities” in computer systems.
The program, modeled after the human immune system, was designed to “… develop a multi-agent detection system that can simultaneously monitor networked computers’ activities at different levels in order to provide both host-based and network-based detection capabilities,” Dasgupta wrote in a technical paper presented at the National Information Systems Security Conference in 1999.
“(I take ideas) from nature and apply them to science and engineering,” Dasgupta said.
Like the human immune system, SANTA memorizes foreign invaders and adapts certain defense mechanisms to attack them, according to computer science graduate student Fabio Gonzalez.
Gonzalez is one of seven “fully-funded” research assistants under the direction of Dasgupta at the Intelligent Security Systems, or ISS, Research Lab.
Dasgupta is internationally known for his research and commitment to “bio-inspired” computer science. He has edited two books, “Artificial Immune Systems and Their Applications” and “Evolutionary Algorithms In Engineering Applications,” co-edited by
Zbigniew Michalewicz.
“(Dasgupta’s) research experience is (great),” Gonzalez said. “He gives (students) a lot of independence. We can work with freedom. He supports our ideas and that’s very important.”
Research assistant Nivedita Majumdar has been working at the ISS Research Lab for more than a year. She came to The U of M to pursue a master’s degree after finishing her undergraduate studies in India.
Majumdar is working on a funded project entitled “Anomaly Detection using a Technique Inspired by the Immune System,” assigned by Dasgupta.
According to Majumdar, Dasgupta’s patience is often needed on student research projects because of mistakes made due to inexperience. The deadlines for students’ assigned research projects can be a year or more away, depending on the projects’ complexity.
“There have been cases (where) because of lack of experience, he will give me extra time to complete assignments,” Majumdar said. “He’s very understanding in the fact that I am fresh out of school.”
