Swiss scientists develop algorithm to locate malware, spam a
Source: Pedro Pinto
The algorithm could also be used as a tool for advertisers to reach customers
Swiss scientists have developed an algorithm which they claim can determine the source of spam, computer viruses or malware by analysing a small percentage of network connections.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) researcher Pedro Pinto and his colleagues at the Audiovisual Communications Laboratory have developed the algorithm that could help criminal investigators locate the source of malware. Pinto said that the algorithm finds the source by only checking a small percentage of the connections in a network.
"If you would like to find the source of a virus, malware or spam-attack it is impossible to track the status of all nodes on the Internet," Pinto said. "That would mean you would need about one billion sensors. And you don't want to monitor the entire Internet. By carefully selecting points in the network to test, we could more rapidly detect the spread of an epidemic."
The new algorithm will be used to estimate the location of the source from measurements collected by sparsely placed observers or sensors.
The researchers said the algorithm could also be used as a tool for advertisers who use viral marketing strategies by using the Internet and social networks to reach customers.
The algorithm would allow advertisers to identify specific Internet blogs that are most influential for their target audience and to understand how these articles spread throughout the online community.
The algorithm was presented in a paper entitled, "Locating the source of diffusion in large-scale networks" in the Physical Review Letters journal.
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