GRADE: A-

Ian Price

Professor Meredith Dangel

English 101

11 November 2016

Annotated Bibliography

 

Dai Y.S., Y. P. XIANG, Y. PAN. ”Bionic Autonomic Nervous Systems for Self-Defense against DoS, Spyware, Malware, Virus, and Fishing.” ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems (TAAS), vol. 9, no. 1, 2014, pp. 4:1-4:20

    Database title in italics here, then doi.

 

The Bionic Autonomic Nervous System (BANS) is a method of anti-malware software that mixes human neurology and computer science. BANS consists of four parts: the Cyber Neuron, the Cyber Axon, the Peripheral Nervous System, and the Central Nervous System. The Cyber Neuron serves as a self-diagnosis tool, while the Cyber Neuron acts as an Entropy Awareness tool. Both the Cyber Neuron and the Cyber Axon work together in the Peripheral Nervous System to help protect against infection, or the Central Nervous System to spread information.

Dai’s Research study found a way to mimic natural phenomena like the nervous system. By mimicking such phenomena, scientists can simulate possible outcomes of the interaction between living organisms more effectively. This information is pertinent to the research topic of my paper because it shows how human biology can be mimicked to fight malware more effectively which, in theory, can allow for significant advances in the simulation of viral behavior. Using information from these simulations, scientists map out virtual behavior and find countermeasures against them.

Ultimately, this research opens a lot of doors. It introduces the possibility of artificial intelligence and offers a more pseudo-natural method of cyber security. By extension, since it is a more natural method than anti-virus software, it’s allows for a more realistic simulation of the immune system and viruses, since malware mimics viruses closely. Due to its emulation of biological systems, Dai’s research will be compared to Kawai’s review to investigate the differences and similarities between this artificial system and the biological one.

 

Han, Xie, and Qiulin Tan. “Dynamical Behavior of Computer Virus on Internet.” Applied Mathematics and Computation, 217.6, 2010, pp. 2520-526. 

 

Malware is very similar to viruses and most types of malware has a real world viral equivalent. For example, Logic Bombs act similar to  HIV and Worms are like influenza. Since malware acts like real world viruses, Han developed a paradigm that models the infectiousness of malware and how quickly it can infect nodes. He then exams the biological meaning behind this data.

This data shows a connection between malware and viruses and gives examples of how they are similar. The model that was formed by Han is used to simulate infection, and was composed of data from real world viruses. These simulations could then also be used to predict the behavior of viruses as well, creating simulations on infection and infection rates.

This data, when combined with data from the studies done by Mishra and Dai, shows that real world data can be used to model malware behavior and create methods of anti-malware defense. This data also shows that the reverse is true, and if we continue developing our computer software, we will be able to emulate real world viruses.

 

Mishra, Bimal Kumar, and Navnit Jha. “Fixed Period of Temporary Immunity after Run of Anti-malicious Software on Computer Nodes.” Applied Mathematics and Computation, vol. 190, no. 2, 2007, pp. 1207-212

 

The research’s purpose is to create a SIRS epidemic model that considers a constant period of temporary immunity. This is different from the previous model, which was exponential. This model runs under the assumptions that:

(i)                 Any new node attached to the computer network is susceptible.

(ii)              Total population size is constant; there are no births, deaths, or entrants into the population.

(iii)            A constant period of temporary immunity (due to run of anti-malicious software) with probability p (0 ⩽ p ⩽ 1) and dies from the attack of malicious object with probability (1 − p) following temporary recovery from the infection of malicious objects in place of an exponentially distributed period of temporary immunity.

(iv)             Temporary immunity period of fixed length after which recovered infective reverts to the susceptible class.

Basically, this experiment was ran by plugging different values for ω, ɑ, and K for the formula ro get the period of asymptotic stability. The best results came from setting ω = 0.002, α = 0.3, K = 15 and setting ω = 0.001, α = 0.4, K = 20. This formed an exponential model that showed the asymptotic stability decreasing, while ω = 0.2, α = 0.2, K = 15 caused an anomalous increase and ω = 0.05, α = 0.6, K = 25 created an oscillation. Ultimately, this model shows that the system will stop being asymptomatic in an amount of time that decreases exponentially when ω, which is the immunity period, is greater than three decimal points in size. However, the model will oscillate when ω approaches 0.05 and will reverse when ω is 0.2.

This article was published in 2007 was used in other studies, such as the one conducted by Xie Han and deals with computer science. However, the study looks at the infection rate of real-world viruses to help create their model, mixing in some virology along the way. The experiment used mathematics to supply data to be used for later experiments and, under their assumptions was done correctly. The source is also unbiased, since it is mathematical in nature, and uses information from previous works to not only build upon their research, but also to make connections to biological viruses to strengthen their points.

The paper was very logos and ethos centered, and featured mainly science backed facts and formulas rather than trying to appeal to my sense of pathos. This source is the basis of the research done by Xie Han, who expanded on Mishra’s study and helps to supply proof of the relationship between malware and viruses.

 

Trépo, Christian, Henry Chan L Y, and Anna Lok. “Hepatitis B Virus Infection.” The Lancet, 384.9959, 2014 

 

The thesis of Trépo’s work is that the development of new therapies that can improve the amount of the Hepatitis B proteins, HBsAg, in the body.clearance and virological cure is warranted and should be developed. Roughly 30% of the world population has had or does have a Hepatitis B Viral (HBV) infection. HBV is spread through blood and semen and is common in people who do needle based drugs and have sex with multiple people. Also, statistically, 95% of children and 5% of adults will develop chronic infections. Developed nations, like the United States, vaccinate 90% of their population, while more endemic regions only vaccinate 56%, showing a correlation between immunity and vaccination. Most cases in more developed cases are also the result of immigrant from more endemic areas. Vaccination is most important in young children, specifically those who are being born with infected mothers since 90% of childhood cases will become chronic and will follow them for the rest of their lives. Ultimately, this investigation shows that vaccines decrease the prevalence of HBV and can help prevent the spread of the disease.

This research was done in 2014 and deals with virology and epidemiology. The study compiles information from multiple sources to describe the epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, immunopathogenic, virology, natural history, and management of HBV. The source has bias because its purpose is to convince the reader the HBV vaccination can help save lives and should be more widespread. This bias is appropriate since Trépo is only compiling and sharing data to support his argument, rather than running experiments.

Trépo supplies information to the reader, to strengthen his argument, attempting to sway the reader with logic. He also attempts to increase his credibility on the subject by providing credible sources for his main claim.

 

Kawai, Taro; Shizuo Akira. “Innate immune recognition of viral infection.” Nature, vol. 7, no. 2, 2006, pp. 131-7.

 

Innate Immune Recognition of Viral Infection by Taro Kawai discusses the progress made by the scientific community to understand antiviral host responses done by the innate immune system. Vaccines mostly treat and eradicate symptoms of viral infections, but current vaccines are inadequate to treat newer viruses and some conditions. Typically, the innate immune system will recognize a virus and then trigger a reaction. The cells that are activated are called type I interferons  and toll-like receptors (TLR). These cells will work in tandem to identify and remove viral infections. Through the research done by Kawai, it was found that TLR is usually beneficial. However, it was discovered that certain viruses will trigger TLR cells to the point that the inflammation caused is more harmful than good. It was also found that viruses will create proteins that will inhibit TLR from working and will slow down the advances of the type I interferons. To help overcome this, scientists must locate the receptor for DNA detection so that they can learn more not only about viruses, autoimmune diseases, and tumors, but also about DNA vaccines that can help inoculate humans from diseases like West Nile Fever. Ultimately, viral infections like HIV, which is both relatively new and dangerous, combined with increased globalization, has led to the need to find more effective means of protecting the population, such as DNA vaccines.

Kawai’s review was published in February, 2006. While the information is a decade old, it’s still appears relevant to the discussion, since now, in 2016, scientists are working with CRISPR to modify people’s genes and cure them of diseases like AIDS. Since attention was paid to DNA vaccine methods, as well as the immune response to viruses and the behavior of viruses in response to the immune system, this review would be in the natural science discipline, with a focus on human biology, virology, and genetics. Kawai himself is a professor of molecular immunology at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, where he performs research. As a professor of molecular immunology, Kawai is well suited for the task of compiling and publishing a research review on how the immune system deals with viral infections. His experience shows in the paper, which efficiently researched and collected data on the subject. In fact, the review was mostly free of bias, since its purpose was to compile data, rather than prove a specific point.

This review, which is just that, lacks the usage of any emotional impact. Since the purpose of Kawai was to compile and share, not much rhetoric is used at all. Of course, being a science article, if is structured with headers and filled with tough, specific lingo. But, ultimately, Kawai’s review is just to share data without giving a specific spin on it. However, that feature is what makes this article so valuable. Throughout this bibliography, there are articles about computer malware and artificial replications of human biology that are used for cyber security. However, there is typically little information on how viruses and the biological immune system work. By including this article, I am providing the information on which the research of Dai, Han, and Mishra is built on. By studying how real world viruses work, these other researchers compiled models and programs that are used to stop their virtual counterparts. This article shall be used in comparison with their research to supply much needed information that can be used to compare the work done by Dai to the real world.