CyberImmunology

As the protection and defence of computational systems and networks becomes more complex, innovative solutions need to be found to generate effective countermeasures. One such approach is to look to nature, to be inspired by natural mechanisms which achieve the kind of protections which we wish to achieve in the digital domain. This has led to the development of a nature inspired technique termed an “Artificial Immune System”. These are a collection of algorithms inspired by the function and behaviour of the different cells of the human immune system. The original conception was to develop a computer immune system to fight computer viruses, but these algorithms have now been applied to a wide range of applications, from network intrusion detection to numerical optimisation, and from evolutionary machine learning to computer art.

In this seminar, an exposition of the current state of the art of Artificial Immune Systems in cybersecurity will be given. A particular focus of this talk will be on a current "Discipline Hopping" project developing novel techniques for the automated generation of responses for intrusion detection systems in an Internet of Things context, based on a current collaboration between Computer Science, Immunology and Security Practitioners.