Could Your IT Repair Itself After a Cyberattack?

Cybersecurity is a massively important consideration for today’s businesses, and as a result, managing it is often given a considerable amount of time. However, recent developments suggest that this time can potentially be reduced by the use of “self-healing” security software. We know that this sounds a little out there, but stay with us! We’ll explain.

Self-Healing Software Has Been Developed and Adopted

ABN Amro, a major Dutch bank, and Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (also known as the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, or TNO) partnered up to design improved ways to protect the software that financial institutions rely on. The result: a system that draws on the human body for inspiration.

A Brief Biology Lesson

Here’s the thing about the human body: it’s constantly refreshing itself. Scientifically, your body contains none of the cells that it did 10 years ago. Not only do cells naturally die off and need to be replaced, the body will ostracize cells it suspects to be infected and replace them with healthy ones. 

This periodic replacement, known as the principle of disposability, offers a pair of benefits when translated to cybersecurity:

• Undetected infections are protected against
• If there is suspicion of an infection, your protections are automatically elevated

The system that was created to emulate this principle of disposability does so quite well, allowing it to repair itself and register when it needs to do so.

There is Little Question That These Tools Could Be Useful to Businesses...

...and fortunately, this could be a reality sooner than later. Reports have come out suggesting that this software will soon be made public… so before long, cybersecurity may become that much simpler to keep managed.

In the meantime, Directive is here to serve the same purpose, monitoring your business’ IT to ensure that all is well and working properly. Find out what we can offer you by giving us a call at 607.433.2200.