WHMurray@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (08/31/90)
> >"Anti"-vaccines don't fit this pattern, because they are spread > >without any concen for their suitability on particular systems. > >Also, by their nature they inevitably spread to other systems which > >may not be able to tolerate them. Like the polio vaccine, if > >administered indiscriminately they would end up causing serious > >"infections". > > An anti-virus could be written to infect only certain types of > operating systems. No, I am sorry, it could not. It could be written not to infect certain known operating systems, but it could not be written to "infect only certain" ones. The susceptibility of unknown systems cannot be known. The distinction is an important one. It points out another flaw in the hypothesis of the "benign" virus. That is, a benign virus must not only be implemented perfectly, but it requires perfect knowledge. It not only requires perfect knowledge about the machine in which it is intended to execute, it requires perfect knowledge about all of the machines in which it may execute. Such knowledge would strain the deity. While the virus creator can know how his creation will behave in a given execution environment, he cannot possibly know how it will behave in a population. Good intentions and competence are not enough. He who sets out to write a benign virus is guilty of unconscionable and reckless hubris. Such hubris is mitigated by the ignorance and immaturity that often accompany it. We cannot do anything about the immaturity, but let us disabuse one and all of the ignorance. William Hugh Murray 203-966-4769 Information System Security 203-326-1833 (CELLULAR) Consultant to Deloitte & Touche ARPA: WHMurray@DOCKMASTER MCI-Mail: 315-8580 TELEX: 6503158580 FAX: 203-966-8612 Compu-Serve: 75126,1722 21 Locust Avenue, Suite 2D DASnet: [DCM1WM]WMURRAY New Canaan, Connecticut 06840 PRODIGY: DXBM57A