Computer Viruses Of A Non-Human Origin

Jack Dikian

December 2010

Introduction

For quite a while I’ve been tossing around the idea of computer system viruses and intrigued by whether a computer virus’ origin may be other than man made.

The origins of non-computer viruses in the evolutionary history of life are unclear: some may have evolved from plasmids – pieces of DNA that can move between cells, while others may have evolved from bacteria. In any case, these are not man made.

As we know computer viruses are usually small software programs that spread from one computer system to another and interfere with the operations of computers. These viruses may corrupt, modify or delete data. However, these are always hand crafted by humans for a ranging set of aims and objectives.

As computer systems become more and more interconnected, complex and ubiquitous - and at the same time our reliance upon them in our everyday life is becoming critical. Is it possible, in the future, for computer viruses or virus-like entities (possibly equivalent to the polymorphic and metamorphic viruses of today) to be self-producing and self-propagating within the complexity of computer systems - an Angie-May virus perhaps?

Whilst I plan to touch on the emergence of complex viruses and the inherent difficulties associated with their detection – the primary intention of this article is not to rehash current thinking – that is the introduction of an ever increasing number of antivirus utilities designed to detect potential viruses on entry and/or behaviours that are regarded suspicious. The main objective here is to raise the notion that future computer viruses may not be man made, ones that many evolve and change over time within the host, and that current strategies to anticipate and/or block the entry of these may be rendered ineffective.

We are aware for example that complex viruses such a metamorphic, polymorphic, and entry-point obscuring virus offer an entirely different and heightened threat to organizations. A better understanding of complex viruses and the limitations of current anti-virus engines may assist future potential threats. Moreover, we only usually consider a virus as a real threat when it’s discovered outside of a laboratory and "in the wild". Again the notion here is that a virus has been incubated somewhere other than the host.

Up to know, detecting a complex virus (as we know them) meant the detection of a threat that is either inherently difficult to detect, or exposes engine limitations that make it difficult to detect. This approach is still still looked at very much through the lens of experience. That is, a group of people on the one hand thinking up new and perhaps, in their minds “interesting” was to breach a system, and on the other, a number of organisations developing and selling more and more complex virus detection packages.

Humans viruses

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Most viruses are too small to be seen directly with a light microscope. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea. Since the initial discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898 about 5,000 viruses have been described in detail, although there are millions of different types. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most abundant type of biological entity.

On the question of whether virus are alive, it seems viruses straddle the definition of life. They lie somewhere between supra molecular complexes and very simple biological entities. Viruses contain some of the structures and exhibit some of the activities that are common to organic life, but they are missing many of the others.

In general, viruses are entirely composed of a single strand of genetic information encased within a protein capsule. Viruses lack most of the internal structure and machinery which characterize 'life', including the biosynthetic machinery that is necessary for reproduction. In order for a virus to replicate, therefore, it must infect a suitable host cell.

And we learned in biology viruses exist in two distinct states. When not in contact with a host cell, the virus remains entirely dormant. During this time there are no internal biological activities occurring within the virus, and in essence the virus is no more than a static organic particle.

In this simple, clearly non-living state viruses are referred to as virions. These can remain in this dormant state for extended periods of time, waiting patiently to come into contact with the appropriate host. When the virions comes into contact with the appropriate host, they become active and are then referred to as a virus. It now displays properties typified by living organisms, such as reacting to its environment and directing its efforts toward self-replication. Virus can cause infections ranging from the more innocuous, such as a cold, to the more malevolent, such as hemorrhagic fever or rabies.

An increasing number of antiviral remedies are being developed that prevent the virus multiplying and help cause the illness to run its course more rapidly. Treating human viruses will depend on the strength of the individual’s immune system, their overall health status, age, the severity of the condition, and the type of viruses involved.

Minor illnesses caused by viral infections usually only require symptomatic treatment (such as painkillers and anti-inflammatories) while more severe conditions may require advanced medical treatment and sometimes even life-long treatment. Antiretroviral therapy suppresses the replication of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), even if there are no symptoms. The aim of treatment is to lower the concentration of virus (viral load).

Animal to Human Viruses

The study of animal viruses is important for a number of reasons. Many animal viruses are also important from a human medical perspective. The emergence of the SARS virus in the human population, coming from an animal source, highlights the importance of animals in bearing infectious agents; avian influenza viruses can directly infect humans.

Generally, rising food prices is under developed countries where people are unable to afford basic supplies, has resulted some communities in Central Africa, for example to increasingly turn to the forests for food. In doing so, hunters expose themselves to hidden dangers - microscopic pathogens living in the blood of forest animals.

Whilst many of these viruses are harmless, some are potentially deadly when passed to humans. Scientists point out there's nothing new about these viruses. What is new, however, is the frequency of people's contact with them and how easily they can now be spread around the world.

Epidemiologist Dr. Nathan Wolfe is following the hunters. "Individuals have been infected with these viruses forever," Wolfe said. "What's changed, though, is in the past you had smaller human populations; viruses would infect them and go extinct. Viruses actually need population density as fuel."

Wolfe works mostly in the forests of Cameroon tracking these viruses that can jump from animals to humans - what are called Zoonotic viruses. Of the 1415 pathogens known to affect humans, 61% are Zoonotic.

The most prolific and deadly Zoonotic is HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In 1999, scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham traced the origins of HIV back to a subspecies of chimpanzee. The virus might have jumped to humans when the blood of an infected chimpanzee came in contact with the blood of a bush meat hunter during the killing or butchering of the animal.

It took decades, but that simple, seemingly insignificant transmission set off a global epidemic, or pandemic, that so far has killed or infected tens of millions of people. HIV probably crossed into humans as far back as the early 1900s, but it wasn't until air travel became common that the virus spread, and AIDS became a global epidemic in the 1980s.

Computer Virus

A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer. It’s important to distinguish a computer virus from other malware programs such as adware and spyware that do not have the reproductive ability.

A computer virus can spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is transferred from one computer over a network, the Internet, or even carried using a removable medium such as a CD or USB. The effectiveness of these viruses (to spread) is increased when they use computer hosts that are commonly accessed by other systems.

Complex viruses

A polymorphic virus is a virus that changes its appearance in host programs. For instance, it encrypts its body with a different key each time, and prepends a decryption routine to itself. The decryption routine (known as the "decryptor") is mutated randomly across virus instances, so as to be not easily recognizable.

A metamorphic virus, by comparison, is a virus that also changes its appearance in host programs, however it does so without necessarily depending on encryption. The difference in appearance comes from changes made by the virus to its own body such as through the insertion and removal of "garbage" instructions and switching between two different opcodes that are functionally-equivalent making analysis and detection difficult.

Examples of computer viruses

1. Encrypted Viruses – The encrypted virus is probably the most difficult kind of bug to detect and the most difficult to stop. You may accidentally have downloaded one of these bugs and before you know it, your entire computer can be infected. Many top virus protection programs miss encrypted viruses because these bugs use a different form of encryption every time. When the bug wants to run wild, it decrypts itself. In most cases, your virus protection can then identify it and stop it.

2. Secret Viruses – These types of viruses will make changes to files on your computer, or completely replace files, but then try to trick your computer and your anti virus program into thinking that the originals are being used. Most advanced virus protection programs can stop these common computer viruses dead in their tracks.

3. Time Delay Viruses – These types of viruses take a much slower, more disciplined path towards ruining your computer. Instead of instantly trying to take over your computer the moment you download them, they will wait and slowly infect files bit by bit. You may not have been online for days but then suddenly find yourself with an infection. These common computer viruses are the reason why you should run your virus protection every few days, just in case.

4. The Anti-Virus Virus – Believe it or not, there are viruses out there that do nothing more than attack your pre-installed anti virus program in hopes of disabling it so other viruses can then be downloaded. This is why many people have a virus protection program as well as a separate anti-spyware or anti-malware program on their computer.

5. The Multi-Headed Virus – This is one of the most nefarious bugs on the whole Internet. Not only are there parts of this virus that will attach themselves to .exe files on your computer, but it will also affect your computer’s start up so that you begin running the virus every time you turn your computer on automatically.

6. The Misdirection Virus – This type of virus is downright scary. It has a built in subprogram that is made to give false readings to your virus protection software. You think you have a bug in one directory, when, in fact, the virus is busy harming your computer in a whole other area.

7. A Cloning Virus – The cloning virus is an old fashioned type of bug. When you download it, it will quickly create duplicates for .exe files you have on your computer, hoping that you’ll click on it when you really mean to click on a healthy program you already have.

8. The Author Virus – When you download a virus, it usually attaches itself to a program and then runs when you run that program. The Author Virus, on the other hand, finds an .exe file and actually deletes and rewrites code so that the program is changed. Few common computer viruses run this way since the level of virus needs to be so sophisticated.

9. The Bad Penny Virus – The very first computer virus to ever hit the Internet was a Bad Penny virus. This is a bug that automatically passes itself on to everyone on a network or on the Internet unless something stops it. This was the whole reason why firewalls were invented.

10. When most of us think of viruses, we think of PC’s running Windows software. However, there are a handful of bugs out there for the Mac.

11. Rewriting Virus – This bug made a habit out of rewriting some of your most needed files, as well as filling up your hard drive with all sorts of invisible files you couldn’t normally see.

12. The Melissa Virus – This was a bug that hit everyone, both PC users and Mac users. It would automatically email itself to other people without permission. It can be extra harmful if you use a private mail server at your place of employment. The Melissa virus has gone down in history as one of the most common computer viruses of all time.

Identifying viruses

Most anti-virus software typically uses two different techniques to detect know viruses and other suspicious software behaviour, prompting for an intervention. The first method examining files to looking for known viruses by means of a virus dictionary (know viruses finger prints). The second method is to identify suspicious behavior from any computer program which might indicate infection.

A virus dictionary approach

In the virus dictionary approach, when the anti-virus software examines a file, it refers to a dictionary of known viruses that have been identified by the author of the anti-virus software. If a piece of code in the file matches any virus identified in the dictionary, then the anti-virus software can then either delete the file, quarantine it so that the file is inaccessible to other programs and its virus is unable to spread, or attempt to repair the file by removing the virus itself from the file.

Polymorphic and metamorphic viruses, which encrypt parts or modify parts of themselves as a method of disguise, so as to not match the virus's signature in the dictionary will therefore not usually be identified.

The suspicious behavior approach, by contrast, doesn't attempt to identify known viruses, but instead monitors the behavior of all programs. If one program tries to carry out an instruction such as writing data to an illegal section of a program (say the executable program) this is flagged as suspicious and the user is alerted to this.

Unlike the dictionary approach, the suspicious behavior approach therefore provides protection against viruses that don’t yet exist in any virus dictionaries. However, it also sounds a large number of false positives, and users probably become desensitized to all the warnings.

Treating Viruses

Treating viral infections are difficult because viruses live within the body’s own cells, making it hard for our immune system to combat it. Viruses also mutate causing treatments that might work today, unusable for the future.

Whilst bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics, viral infection cannot. Antiviral medications do not destroy their target pathogen - instead they inhibit their development.

Most human viral infections can be successfully fought by the body's own immune system as well as treating the symptomatology.

Future Computer Viruses

So far, we’ve examined the workings of viruses, the phenomena of viral infection increasing burden of the disease in low endemicity countries, in terms of morbidity and mortality rates. We touched on how human immunodeficiency virus such as the influenza virus, crossing the species barriers from animals to humans.

I wanted to explore the parallels of pathogenic viruses with those infecting computer systems. Importantly, examine whether these parallels share more than just a narrative, nomenclature, and perhaps even the legitimatization by association, what some may describe as computer hacking computer crime, computer fraud, etc,

Moreover, I wanted to question the notion of what of computer viruses, particularly complex viruses that are self-generating – perhaps through automated in-code generators and are not contained or limited to the system of origin. Is it valid for example to describe software bugs, faulty code, or systems’ errors as artificial viruses that may spread through the interconnectedness of modern system platforms.

Incomplete..

Cartoons Make A Comeback At Facebook World - Noble Cause

Jack Dikian

December 2010

A few days ago I reactivated my Facebook account after not having used it for almost a year. As well as the usual messages, invitations, and friend suggestions – I was amazed by the number of people who had switched their profile pictures. The standout for me was a seemingly emergent use of cartoon characters as profile pictures.

Using one of Google’s lesser known products, "trends", it become obvious that there is something, probably not quite enough to call it a trend just yet, but certainly enough for me to follow a hunch. Google trends is reporting a huge jump in the volume (Search Volume Index) of people searching Facebook cartoon profile pictures. The jump, from an almost flat line (for all intensive purposes) to a large spike appearing in late 2010."

Interestingly, the United States and the United Kingdom represent spikes in search volumes for the terms “Facebook cartoon profile picture” while the countries Malaysia and the Philippines represent spikes in volume for search words “Facebook cartoon picture”.

It seems in recent weeks, users of Facebook have been searching for pictures of beloved cartoon characters from their childhood. People are switching their profile pictures to cartoon characters dating from as far back as the 50′s. Also cartoons which aired in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s are also popular, with cartoon characters from the 90′s not lagging far behind.

And the reason for this trend, I might have been better informed if I had only stoped to read about Facebook’s latest campaign to raise awareness of child abuse. User’s have apparently been asked to change their profile picture to a cartoon character for the short campaign which ends December 7, 2010.

So why then have people in Pakistan been searching for “Facebook cartoons” since late 2008?

Another term (word) that has a large search volume is “Slacktivism”. According to Wikipedia, Slacktivism (sometimes slactivism) is a portmanteau formed out of the words slacker and activism. The word is considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. The acts also tend to dilute awareness campaigns and require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist.

While Facebook’s campaign intentions are very admirable, I sincerely hope that change occurs beyond pictures. After further browsing, many who now display cartoons for profile pictures have not change their status.

Mystery Of Holes In T-shirts

Jack Dikian

December 2010

Have you noticed how t-shirts all end up with tiny holes, usually in clusters of about half a dozen usually in the same area – front and just above the zipper area. Curiously, this doesn't seem to happen on other clothing, just on knit t-shirts.

This seems to be happening to new unwashed shirts and so the reasonable theory that it might be occurring by the wash-dry cycle doesn’t fit. And why just t-shirts and why only the front area?

I’ve looked at abrasion related factors, how the clothes are folded, rodents..., and even if it’s somehow the result of leaning forward against the kitchen bench, or pushing up against the edge of the office desk.

Sure, besides being the proud owner of a wardrobe full of shirts with holes, the cost and inconvenience of having to buy another every few weeks – it seems entirely reasonable to give this matter a whole lot more thought.

After all, far far superior thinkers looked at the seemingly random movements of pollen suspended in a fluid and independently reasoned that the motion indirectly confirmed the existence of atoms and molecules. Those thinkers were non other than Albert Einstein and later Marian Smoluchowski in their work on Brownian motion.

Dancing in the Rain

Jack Dikian

November 2010

After a long day at one of our clinics – I realized I’d left my phone in the car and found myself running back to the car in order to retrieve. After all, how would I cope without my phone, what if that special person was to call me…Ignoring that the rain was also cold, in that instant – it occurred to me that running to the car may not necessarily mean I’ll keep dryer.

That is, does running from one point to another help reduce the amount of rain we are likely to collect.

At first blush, I’m guessing that like others, intuition tells us that the longer we remain in falling rain the wetter we are going to get. But what of the logic that by running we will be covering more of an area in a unit of time than if walking, therefore we will be hitting more rain as we run.

Like all things, the devil really is in the detail. Thinking about this a little more it seems there are numerous variables that can affect this question. The presence of wind, is rain falling at a constant speed, whether we walk and/or run with our shoulders straight and our backs upright, etc.

The problem can be divided into two parts:

1. The rain that hits the front of us while we are moving forward. This will be the same amount of rain, but occurring at a faster rate. The amount of rain can therefore be determined by rain per cubic meter multiplied by square of the surface area of our front multiplied by the distance traveled.

2. Wetness as a variable of rain falling from above is entirely a function of time. This amount is determined by how much rain per cubic meter per second multiplied by square of the surface area of our top multiplied by time.

So, when traveling from point A to point B, we should expect to get less wet the quicker we move. However, if wetness is measured by time, and if we are waiting (standing) in the rain - we would become less wet if we are to stand still rather than move around.

Tintin And The Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy

Jack Dikian

November 2010

In "Destination Moon", the sixteenth of "The Adventures of Tintin", a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock are suddenly called by Professor Calculus to the Sprodj Atomic Research Centre in Syldavia a fictional country.

The guests are amazed to find the Professor planning to build a “space rocket”; and Tintin and his friends are unaware of the dangers that await them – for Calculus intends to fly to the Moon with the company of Tintin, Haddock, and Snowy, Tintin’s loyal fox terrier.

Despite the mishaps, the adventure sets off on the most hazardous journey ever undertaken by man.

What is of great insight is the author’s (Hergé) level of insight, imagination, and desire to be as consistent with scientific accuracy as perhaps available to an illustrator in the mid 1950’s, Destination Moon was written in 1954, well over a decade before the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing and several years before manned space flight. For example, Calculus describes how the deadly radioactivity produced by the engine would pollute the launch and landing area, hence the rocket is also equipped with a conventional chemical rocket engine.

The Use Of Uranium Because They Have Lots Of It..

The key element I wanted to reflect upon however, as well as the character’s feats of space exploration – the idea that Uranium can be used for peaceful use. More so, according to Prof. Calculus, the “Syldavian government invited nuclear physicists from other countries to work at the Centre, which was created four years earlier when large uranium deposits were discovered in the area”.

The Centre is entirely dedicated to peaceful uses of nuclear energy,…..

Are we, Australians, able to be as visionary and foresighted as Hergé in our search for environmentally friendly energy, and non-existent debate over nuclear energy.

The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Jack Dikian

November 2010

The Black Swan The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Nassim Nicholas Taleb

A brief review

Extreme events are more likely than we think - Taleb calls these "Black Swans" after the one-time European certainty, based on northern hemisphere experience, that all swans were white. Before we had an inkling of the global financial crises starting in 2007, Taleb, with almost impeccable timing, discusses the risks inherent in the big banks, and goes on to say, “Likewise the government sponsored institution Fanny Mae, when I look at their risks, seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite,..”. I should say, he wrote the book in 2006 and published in 2007.

I, like many others, would ask, why isn’t this required reading for those thinking of wanting a life in politics, economics and/or finance.

The Black Swan challenges our desire and ability to acknowledge the impact of unknown, highly improbable events that can and will occur over our life-times looking at some of the features of human psychology that make us poor at evaluating uncertainties and risks, instead, amongst other things relying on narrative explanations and blinkered views.

In “The Black Swan,” Taleb proclaims that the unexpected is the key to understanding not just financial markets but history itself. History, he writes, proceeds by “jumps,” controlled by “the tyranny of the singular, the accidental, the unseen and the unpredicted.

Whilst the book contains numerous insights evidenced by examples such as: “We attribute our successes to our skills, and our failures to external events outside our control.” Like all things, there are shortcomings. The bulk of this book is underpinned by criticizing others for failing to see the future — though who exactly can see the future? And on this Taleb generalizes, for instance scoffing that the collapse of the Soviet Union was an unfathomably unlikely event that “no social scientist saw coming.” The historian John Mueller’s brilliant 1989 book, “Retreat From Doomsday,” published just before the Berlin Wall fell, did see it coming.

The Black Swan is brilliant, thought-provoking and challenging in the most constructive and valuable ways.

Adaptive value and causal role of consciousness

Jack Dikian

November 2010

A week or two ago I was flicking through an Anatomy text when my boss walked past me and causally asked if I was reading about the Human body. My answer was more telling of what I was thinking (been thinking about for many years) rather than what I could have said – that I was simply captivated by the colour plates.

What was I thinking?

How could something so immensely complex have developed through random mutations and natural selection, even with sufficient time. And the real irony, I was flicking through the pages illustrating the eye - Something even Darwin acknowledged from the start that, that would be a difficult case for his new theory to explain.

As she was walked away from me, it was almost like she read my mind. We talked about complexity, brain wiring, and the question of consciousness. We both asked – does consciousness have a causal role in survival.

We learned at school that the two main processes that cause variants to become more or less in a population is through. One is natural selection and genetic drift. We learned, for example, that traits that aid survival and reproduction become more common, while traits that hinder survival and reproduction become rarer. Over many generations, heritable variation in traits is filtered by natural selection and the beneficial changes are successively retained through differential survival and reproduction.

Traits that become better suited to an organism's environment such as our eyes, for example, is said to have an adaptive function (adaptations).

Theories of the genies of life itself is well documented in the works of Harvard biochemist George Wald, Nobel laureate Christian de Duve, the materialist Richard Dawkins, to name just a few.

But what of the question of the adaptive value and causal role of consciousness in human (and nonhuman organisms). Is evolution blind to the difference between a conscious organism and a functionally equivalent non-conscious organism.