Parasitic computing threatens Web ethics
By EMILY HOWALD
News Writer
Four Notre Dame professors recently discovered a new Internet vulnerability that is commonly known as "parasitic computing."
The researchers found a way to "trick" Web servers around the world into solving logic math problems without the server's permission.
"We're using other people's computers to solve problems," said Jay Brockman, an associate professor of computer science and engineering. "You come up with a question and they can respond if the logic question is a match."
Along with Brockman, the team consisted of Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Hoffman Professor of Physics; Vincent Freeh, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; and Hawoong Jeong, research assistant professor of physics.
The research was primarily an academic exercise and used as a lecture topic for the professors; however, the findings were printed in an issue of Nature.
The researchers found that they could tag a logic problem onto the check sum (the bit amount that is sent when a Web page is requested) and the Web server would process the request. When a Web page was requested without the correct check sum, the server would not respond to the request.
Each of the math problems that were tagged on to the request by the researchers was broken down into smaller pieces that were evaluated by servers in North America, Europe and Asia. The results from each were used to build a solution.
The major discovery in this experiment is that other computers are answering logical questions without knowledge of doing so. The work is performed without consent, creating an ethical dilemma.
The researchers agree that if "parasitic computing" becomes more widespread, then the procedure is not ethical.
"We are using other people's computers in this procedure," said Brockman. "It can be seen as unethical because the whole process is borrowing a little bit of computation from another server."
The technique does not violate the security of the unknowing server; it only uses areas that are open for public access. They find it useful because they found a way to use a computer elsewhere to solve a problem.
All News Stories for Friday, September 14, 2001
