New algorithm tracks down the origins of internet attacks

Swiss researcher Pedro Pinto and his colleagues at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne suggest using the Sparse Interference algorithmPDF to make tracking down the origins of internet threats more efficient. Until now, institutions such as the US National Security Agency (NSA) have used brute force methods to search for the sources of epidemic threats (malware, worms, trojans, internet rumours) in complex networks – but scanning all potentially affected network nodes or address spaces requires a lot of time and resources.