SOFPJF@UOGUELPH.BITNET (Peter Jaspers-Fayer) (09/28/89)
This is an outline for a semi-serious paper on the similarities
between biological and computer viruses, and the efforts to understand
and combat them. I present it here in the hopes that others may wish
to contribute a paragraph or so (sorry no money, but I'll give credit
for any material I receive).
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Loosely termed, a virus is a "piece of information" that
replicates itself by using it's host's own machinery. Methods of
entry into the host system are various. The infection often has a
latency period that differs from one species of virus to another.
They may, in fact, appear to be entirely benign. Viruses often "hide"
in specific parts of the infected system, sometimes multiplying there,
sometimes completely dormant, until some external event triggers the
onset of the symptoms.
Concerning the effort to understand and combat biological and
computer viruses; there are also many correspondences between the
identification, classification, taxonomy, evolutionary theory and
epidemiology of the two disciplines.
Often in reading the network discussion list "VIRUS-L", I am
struck by the familiarity (my own background is biology) of the
arguments that have arisen about:
- - How best to identify a new virus,
- - What to name it,
- - When it started,
- - Where it originated,
- - It's relation to other viruses,
- - The possible evolutionary path,
- - What methods of infection there are,
- - The ways a virus can combat detection and defences,
- - How quickly it spreads,
- - The percentage of the host population that is infected,
- - What the latency period is, and how the onset of symptoms are triggered.
The only absolutely sure way to understand the virus is to dis-
assemble it into it's component parts, and read the code.
Unfortunately, we are only recently able to disassemble the simplest
of the biological virus, and the ability to understand all of the
approximately 10K instructions of that simple virus is many years
away.
What other analogies can you see? Can you expand on any of the above?
Stretching things just a little bit further, there are analogies between:
Biological Computer
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Atlanta Center for Disease Control - Computer Virus Industry Association
DNA viruses - Boot-Sector Viruses
RNA viruses - .EXE, .COM resident viruses
AIDS - A (as yet uninvented - I hope) virus
that seeks out and destroys only
anti-viral programs, leaving you
prone to infection by other viruses.
I'd like to flesh this out a bit. Suggestions need not be serious,
and flights of fancy welcomed. The material may be used in a talk we
are giving on computer viruses and other ills.
Please reply directly to me at SofPJF@VM.UoGuelph.Ca, or
SOFPJF@UOGUELPH.BITNET Thanks.
/PJ
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First Law of Wing Walking: Never leave hold of what you have got until
you have got hold of something else.pmorriso@uunet.UU.NET (Perry Morrison MATH) (10/05/89)
SOFPJF@UOGUELPH.BITNET (Peter Jaspers-Fayer) writes: > This is an outline for a semi-serious paper on the similarities > between biological and computer viruses, and the efforts to understand > and combat them. I present it here in the hopes that others may wish > to contribute a paragraph or so (sorry no money, but I'll give credit > for any material I receive). I wrote a short paper published in the Futurist which introduces the analogy of software and organic viruses. For historical adequacy of your paper, I'd appreciate it if you included it in your bibliography: Morrison, P.R. "Computer Parasites May Cripple Our Computers", The Futurist, 1986, 20(2), 36-38. _ _______________________W_(Not Drowning...Waving!)______________________ Perry Morrison Ph.D, V.D (and scar). SNAIL: Maths, Stats and Computing Science, UNE, Armidale, 2351, Australia. perrym@neumann.une.oz or pmorriso@gara.une.oz Ph:067 73 2302