Molecular networks provide insights for computer security
The robust defenses that yeast cells have evolved to protect themselves from environmental threats hold lessons that can be used to design computer networks and analyze how secure they are, say computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University.
Environmental "noise" is a key evolutionary pressure that shapes the interconnections within cells, as well as those of neural networks and bacterial/ecological networks, they observe in a paper to be published online April 30 by the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. The researchers factored this into an established model for the evolution of molecular connections, resulting in an algorithm that gives rise to a rich range of architectures found in biological, computer and other types of networks. Saket Navlakha, a post-doctoral researcher in CMU's Machine Learning Department, said this approach is particularly helpful in understanding how networks respond to cascading failures, whether it be an overloaded power grid or a computer network being overwhelmed by fake identities in a so-called sybil attack.
