Chicksdaddy writes "Security researchers often use talk and metaphors from the natural world to define problems in the virtual world. (Consider 'virus,' and 'worm.') Now it turns out that the links may be more than just rhetoric. Microsoft Researchers say that tools they adult to detect spammers' efforts to avoid anti-spam filters were also great at spotting mutations in the HIV virus. A report from Microsoft quest in honor of World AIDS Day yesteryear described how Microsoft Researchers David Heckerman and state Carlson were called upon to help AIDS researchers analyze data about how the human immune system attacks the HIV virus. To do so, they turned to tools and algorithms grown at Microsoft to detect and block spam e-mail in the company's Hotmail, Outlook and switch e-mail products."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More: - Brought to my attention by