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December 19th, 2003, 09:08 PM
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_121203.asp
Device Guards Net Against Viruses
Technology Research News December 12, 2003
Keeping a computer safe from viruses usually means installing virus-catching software and keeping it running and updated. Not everyone takes the trouble to do this, and viruses spread because there are enough unprotected machines to propagate them.
Washington University and Global Velocity researchers have found an alternative way to stop computer viruses and Internet worms. The Field Programmable Port Extender is reconfigurable hardware that can protect an entire network at a time.
Information sent over the Internet is broken into packets that are reassembled at the data's final destination. The Field Programmable Port Extender scans every byte of data contained in every packet that passes through a network and stops packets that contain an Internet virus or computer worm signature.
By using reconfigurable hardware rather than software the researchers were able to construct a system fast enough to filter data going through high-speed network backbones and flexible enough to add virus and worm signatures quickly as they are discovered. The device filters data at 2.4 billion bits per second.
The system identifies viruses and worms even when the bits of malicious software were broken up among multiple packets and interleaved among multiple traffic flows.
The system is ready for practical use now, according to the researchers. They presented the work at the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Device (MALPD) conference in Washington, D.C. September 9 through 11, 2003.
Device Guards Net Against Viruses
Technology Research News December 12, 2003
Keeping a computer safe from viruses usually means installing virus-catching software and keeping it running and updated. Not everyone takes the trouble to do this, and viruses spread because there are enough unprotected machines to propagate them.
Washington University and Global Velocity researchers have found an alternative way to stop computer viruses and Internet worms. The Field Programmable Port Extender is reconfigurable hardware that can protect an entire network at a time.
Information sent over the Internet is broken into packets that are reassembled at the data's final destination. The Field Programmable Port Extender scans every byte of data contained in every packet that passes through a network and stops packets that contain an Internet virus or computer worm signature.
By using reconfigurable hardware rather than software the researchers were able to construct a system fast enough to filter data going through high-speed network backbones and flexible enough to add virus and worm signatures quickly as they are discovered. The device filters data at 2.4 billion bits per second.
The system identifies viruses and worms even when the bits of malicious software were broken up among multiple packets and interleaved among multiple traffic flows.
The system is ready for practical use now, according to the researchers. They presented the work at the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Device (MALPD) conference in Washington, D.C. September 9 through 11, 2003.