Experimenting with Innate Immunity

libtissue is a software system for implementing and testing AIS algorithms on real-world computer security problems. AIS algorithms are implemented as a collection of cells, antigen and signals interacting within a tissue compartment. Input data to the tissue comes in the form of realtime events generated by sensors monitoring a system under surveillance, and cells are actively able to affect the monitored system through response mechanisms. libtissue is being used by researchers on a project at the University of Nottingham to explore the application of a range of immune-inspired algorithms to problems in intrusion detection. This talk describes the architecture and design of libtissue, along with the implementation of a simple algorithm and its application to a computer security problem.