Next-gen viruses need next-gen responses

Evolution is a powerful idea. It predicts that as an environment changes, the organism that best adapts will be the most successful. This should be warning enough to malware security software writers to stay alert — and already, the next generation of hostile software is proving more intelligent than the last.

There have been no major Slammer-type global outbreaks of rapidly spreading, destructive viruses since last May, but that's no cause for celebration. With big money behind them, the virus writers are turning to new and more subtle ideas and are learning to evade removal. This matches what parasitologists have long known: successful parasites do not kill their hosts. But they can do a great deal of harm.

Researchers say that small-scale deployments of extremely stealthy viruses are regularly observed, infecting a thousand or so computers — not enough to justify the time of the overworked signature writers at the major software companies, but enough to harvest plenty of passwords and other personal information.