Month: September 2022

DIGITAL TELESCOPING. "Some have argued that neither the geological timescales nor the large populations that are germane to biological evolution will be available to evolving computer malware. However, generation times for computer viruses are many orders of magnitude shorter than even bacterial generation times, and furthermore selective pressures are expected to be much stronger and mutation rates higher, speeding up evolution." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

RAPID BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION. "The emergence of new functional complexity on much smaller time scales than geological ones has recently been observed in very different experiments. A 36-year experiment with lizards for example has shown that such a comparatively short time frame is sufficient for major adaptive morphological changes to arise, such as novel morphological structures in the form of cecal valves." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

WEEKS NOT YEARS. "In a long-term experiment with E. coli bacteria, one particular strain evolved the ability to metabolize a new carbon source (citrate) after about 31,500 generations, a complex adaptation that required a multitude of mutations. Given the drastically shorter generation time of computer viruses, generations of this order of magnitude can be achieved within weeks at most." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

VIRAL MUTATION RATES. "Viruses are typically characterized by high mutation rates, which allow them to quickly develop drug-resistant mutations." https://lnkd.in/dWZ7g4c View in LinkedIn

COMPUTER VIRUS INTENTIONALITY. "Virus mutations occur when a captured virus is modified in some way. This is done by intentional assembly programming and is quite distinct from biological mutations, which occur accidentally." https://lnkd.in/dTbptb6 View in LinkedIn

UNANTICIPATED MALWARE COMPLEXITY. "Computer experts brace for virus mutations...anti-virus experts said, has been scattered reports of new symptoms being detected among infected machines, a sign the bug may be more complex than first thought." (1999). https://lnkd.in/dWmig58 View in LinkedIn

CURRENT LIMITED FOCUS. "Malicious code development is still largely limited to code pattern changes utilizing polymorphic and metamorphic engines, as well as executable packer and wrapper technologies." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

MALWARE AUTONOMY. "Each new malware instance retains the exact same core functionality as its ancestor and only alters the way it looks. What if, instead, malware were able to change its function or behavior autonomously? What if, in the absence of human intervention, computer viruses resembled biological viruses in their ability to adapt to new defense technologies as soon as they came into effect?" (2011). https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

DARWINIAN MALWARE. "More recent systems such as the Avida platform have established that Darwinian evolution of computer programs can be used to study evolutionary biology and genetics." Imagine if this was available to malware. https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

FRAGILE DIGITAL CODE. "In these systems, the code is implemented with small, well-defined instruction sets that are highly evolvable, that is, the probability that a mutation leads to another functional program is high (of the order of several to tens of percents). Most standard computer languages are not robust in this manner. For example, the x86 instruction set only tolerates very few mutations (on the order of fractions of a percent of the code." That applies to today. Not tomorrow. https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn