[Talk] mre: Security Implications of Homogeneity

[David Bullock]

Where is the research that indicates the degree of
heterogeneity required to achieve levels of network
robustness?

Are 2 alternatives enough, or does it take 10
alternatives to really make a difference?

For example, Jim Waldo says at:

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Interviews/waldo_qa.html

  "It is an interesting question as to what the actual
   dimensionality of a network is, measured as the average
   number of connections between points. Some research that
   I've read shows that the dimensionality is some fractal
   between 7 and 8. This means that as the network doubles
   in size (the number of nodes, or points) the volume of
   the network (a measure of the number of interconnections)
   goes up by some power of between 7 and 8."

(He points out how this exponential growth of the network
is faster than Moore's law).

Given these kind of 'network maths', wouldn't the diversity
of the network need to follow a similar scaling to truly
prevent wide-scale security attacks?

cheers,
David