Researcher believes computer viruses could cross into biological realm
A senior manager at Fortinet's threat research and response centre, Guillaume Lovet, thinks that hackers could create malicious software that crosses the line from technology to biology - crafting viruses that spread dangerous epidemics.
“We came to wonder if there can be some kind of convergence between human viruses and computer viruses,” Lovet said. “It may sound like a scenario for a bad Hollywood movie, but it is not such a stupid question.”
One of the main things that led the researcher and his colleagues to this conclusion is the similarity between computer and human viruses - in essence they behave the same way - including information coding for parasitic behaviour inside the host system. The researchers also pointed out that like most humans, computers can infect themselves. For example, a computer can get infected by visiting a website in a drive-by malware attack - where malware that has been embedded in the site then tries to install itself on a target machine.
