Viral Cure Could 'Immunise' The Internet

Fri Dec 9 19:02:59 UTC 2005

In message <Pine.GSO.4.58.0512091602160.20032 at marvin.argfrp.us.uu.net>, "Christ
opher L. Morrow" writes:
>
>
>On Fri, 9 Dec 2005 sgorman1 at gmu.edu wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Thought folks might find this interesting
>>
>> http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8403
>>
>> Viral Cure Could 'Immunise' The Internet, New Scientist
>>
>> Excerpts: A cure for computer viruses that spreads in a viral fashion
>> could immunise the internet, even against pests that travel at lightning
>> speed, a mathematical study reveals.
>
>I think they call this 'welchia'... I don't recall it doing all that many
>'good' things, unless 'raising customer traffic rates' qualifies as
>'good'.
>
Besides, it's *unauthorized*.  I don't want random strangers deciding 
when my machine should be patched.  I think, in this forum, we all know 
that patches can have bad side effects.

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb