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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

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

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

BENEFICIAL MUTATIONS, TIME AND POPULATION. "Nonetheless, given the long time scale available to biological evolution along with large population sizes, such gradual stepwise beneficial changes will lead to the emergence of complexity." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

RAPID CHANGE IN 30 YEARS. "During the three decades of their existence, computer viruses have moved from simple replicators to advanced polymorphic and metamorphic implementations." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

RARE BENEFICIAL MUTATIONS. "It is important to note that the fraction of beneficial mutations (among all those that can occur) is usually very small, with most mutations being deleterious and the rest neutral." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

SIMPLE CONCEPT. "We argue here that apart from a hint and some failed implementation attempts (e.g., W32/Zellome), self-evolving malware has yet to appear. The concept itself, however, is relatively simple, and the consequences of the release of evolving malware should be studied." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

INHERITED GOOD MUTATIONS. "Mutations that provide organisms with a reproductive advantage over others (beneficial mutations) will tend to propagate to future generations." https://lnkd.in/dGC6A7c View in LinkedIn

MALWARE MATINGS. "Malware has been spotted that evolves on its own, leeching onto other strains and multiplying its powers, without any human interaction." https://lnkd.in/dMWp2j5 View in LinkedIn

TUMOR MUTATIONS. "Our latest release (v70; Aug 2014) describes 2,002,811 coding point mutations in over one million tumor samples and across most human genes. COSMIC also details more than six million noncoding mutations, 10,534 gene fusions, 61,299 genome rearrangements, 695,504 abnormal copy number segments and 60,119,787 abnormal expression variants." https://lnkd.in/dcuS5W2 View in LinkedIn