From Network World’s Microsoft Subnet
Detecting and patching mutating worms
From Julie Bort, one of the Microsoft Subnet editors: Microsoft researcher and mathematician Jennifer Tour Chayes set her skills on studying the best patch defense against mutating worms. She concluded that the fastest way to bring this insidious infection to a halt is to patch nodes that are most connected to others, even if those nodes are not exhibiting signs of infection. News reports such as this story in Science News hailed her research. But I thought her conclusions sounded absurdly obvious. It might be a cool mathematical exercise to model a mutating worm and show how patching key nodes works better than running around the country patching individual infected machines. But did the typical network engineer need a Microsoft researcher to study and conclude this? Is there a better way to fend off the mutating worm threat?
