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Cybersecurity and Biology: Biomimicry and Innovation Inspired by Nature
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What Cybersecurity and Biology Have in Common. How Biomimicry Can Help Us Devise Better Cybersecurity

Since digital systems have been built to well, mimic the way live systems function and behave (and malware also mimics the way a virus infection or disease behaves life), cybersecurity and biology have more in common than you’d think. Here’s how we can take a fresh look at this congruence by exploring the concept of biomimicry.

When it comes to ecosystems, our information technology ecosystem is very, very young (for example, the global internet is only about 30). Our planetary ecosystem, however, is well over 3 billion years old.

That’s 3-plus billion years of evolutionary innovation and natural intelligence that has inspired countless breakthroughs in the world of design — and that is now being tapped for game-changing new ideas in the high-stakes world of information security.

So, what can such creatures as the humble ant teach us about cybersecurity? Or for that matter, the chameleon or the Bornean moth?

Cybersecurity and Biology. The Idea of Biomimicry

Welcome to the fertile field of biomimicry which, according to Smithsonian Magazine (“How Biomimicry is Inspiring Human Innovation”), hinges on the notion that “we human beings, who have been trying to make things for only the blink of an evolutionary eye, have a lot to learn from the long processes of natural selection, whether it’s how to make a wing more aerodynamic or a city more resilient or an electronic display more vibrant.”

Or in the case of cybersecurity, to make information systems and defenses more secure, resilient, adaptable and secure.

The millions of species and organisms that have inhabited this planet far longer than humans have learned to adapt to life on earth uniquely, gracefully and sometimes with astonishing brilliance. As science author and biomimicry expert Janine Benyus put it, “they are our elders” so why not learn as much as we can from their “3.8 billion years of research and development.”

What is Biomimicry? [Several Definitions]

While not a familiar term to all, humankind has used biomimicry from the time we started wearing animal skins for warmth.

“One of the most often-cited examples is Velcro, which the Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral patented in 1955 after studying how burs stuck to his clothes,” according to the Smithsonian report. In other examples, “a fan-created by Pax Scientific borrows from the patterns of swirling kelp, nautilus and whelks to move air more efficiently. A saltwater-irrigated greenhouse in the Qatari desert will use condensation and evaporation tricks gleaned from the nose of a camel.”

One of the best and simplest ways to think of biomimicry is “innovation inspired by nature.”

The term is believed to have been coined in 1982 and popularized by Janine Benyus in her 1997 book titled, you guessed it, “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.” Among the countless examples, she cites is the Wright brothers employing biomimicry by observing pigeons and vultures and using them as inspiration in the creation of the first airplane.

“Our most clever architectural struts and beams are already featured in lily pads and bamboo stems. Our central heating and air-conditioning are bested by the termite tower’s steady 86 degrees F. Our most stealthy radar is hard of hearing compared to the bat’s multifrequency transmission. And our new ‘smart materials’ can’t hold a candle to the dolphin’s skin or the butterfly’s proboscis. Even the wheel, which we always took to be a uniquely human creation, has been found in the tiny rotary motor that propels the flagellum of the world’s most ancient bacteria,” she writes.

“Unlike the Industrial Revolution, the Biomimicry Revolution introduces an era based not on what we can extract from nature, but on what we can learn from her.”

In addition to her books, Benyus has delivered multiple Ted Talks on the topic including: “Biomimicry’s Surprising Lessons From Nature’s Engineers” and “Biomimicry in Action.”

Here is how two of the leading organizations devoted to the study and advancement of biomimicry define the art and science of innovation inspired by nature.

“Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies.” – Biomimicry.org

“Biomimicry is learning from and then emulating nature’s forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable designs.” – Biomimicry.net
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