Australian scientists believe they have developed an unbreakable information code to stop hackers, using a diamond, a kitchen microwave oven and an optical fibre.

The National Security Agency's top information security official disclosed plans this week for a government-funded research center devoted to improving the security of commercial software, calling the initiative a modern-day Manhattan Project.

Researchers uncovered a serious flaw in the underlying technology for nearly all Internet traffic, a discovery that led to an urgent and secretive international effort to prevent global disruptions of Web surfing, e-mails and instant messages.

Software engineers have developed an intrusion-detection program capable of recognizing attack patterns before hackers have even developed them.

A new device that quarantines different portions of a computer network could stop worms and viruses infecting an entire company once they have breached its perimeter defences.

Researchers have developed a smaller version of the Internet that will serve as a virtual laboratory to develop new business tools, computer programs and weapons against worms and viruses.

The authors argue that the U.S. should pay more attention to cyberterrorism because as the recent blackout showed, attacks on our computer networks can "dramatically affect millions of our citizens and undermine core institutions of our society just as effectively as a weapon of mass destruction."

Researchers are developing puzzles that are extremely difficult for current machines or software programs to solve but easy for humans to crack as a way of distinguishing between humans and software programs.

Researchers are developing computer systems that systems become their own security experts, adapting to threats as they unfold and staying one step ahead of the action.

New intrusion-detection software is being developed that mimics biological immune systems, learning to watch for unusual events. Other software randomly generates "detectors," throws away those that match normal behavior, and retains those that represent abnormal behavior.