Biodiversity: A security approach for ad hoc networks

Maintaining an adequate level of security in computer networks is a co-evolving process between improved security techniques and ever more sophisticated attack methods. Our appetite for new technologies shows no abating, evidenced most recently by the smartphone market. Malware continues to be a growing problem and saturation times are becoming so rapid that a continued reliance on signature based protection is becoming impractical as a strategy. We urgently require techniques which enable us to adapt to, and be tolerant of, malicious activity, even if it is an entirely new form of attack, to achieve resilience where otherwise our security fails. Ecology research has found that the impact of disturbances to a community, such as the spread of certain types of viruses, can be reduced by a greater level of biodiversity. There are similarities between dynamic ad hoc networks and natural communities due to their movement and short range communication patterns. We explore here whether biodiversity might offer a security strategy for ad hoc networks.