Why Virus Writers are Useful

man_of_mr_e writes "Security site Zone-h.org has an interview with Professor Samuel D. Forrester, one of the worlds leading immunologists. In this interview he asserts that immunity is built by infection, and without it you would have a much weaker ecosystem. "

Comments

Why you should drink tap water

[brejc8]

My mother used to work as a water health scientist in Poland (It was just a cover job for working in the anti-biological warfare division but thats another story).
She used to have to ensure that there was a correct ammount of flouride in the water. The ammount had to be quite exact, not because a little too much flouride is bad for you but because if you kill off all bacteria then the people didnt become immune to the different strains. The USSR did huge studies on this, varying the flourine levels and getting statistics.
Its the same case with my friends who go to India and would never drink the tap water. They simply are not immune to the local bacteria while the locals are quite happy with it.

You're kind-of wrong

[loose_change]

Immunity is exposed by infection. It isn't created out of thin air as needed.

While in some measure your statement has validity, it doesn't quite get the point.

In the creation of antibodies and other receptors in the immune system, cells literally rearrange their chromosomal DNA to create antibodies with different specificities. That means each cell has a different potential specificity. When the body gets exposed to a new pathogen, it probably has one or two cells that will make an antibody that can respond to it. If it does, it only has a very few cells that make appropriate antibodies -- in effect, at the moment of exposure, the body has no immunity, only the potential for immunity. Those cells have to be stimulated to reproduce and develop into specialized antibody factories before the body has anything sufficient to fight the infection. The immunity gets created based on existing potential.

Immunology works as a metaphor. The analogy in this case is the following:

A virus is released. Several people have the knowledge to patch the security hole exploited by the virus. The larger system of users does not become immune until those with the knowledge write and distribute the patch. The patch doesn't exist before the virus challenges it. It gets created out of existing potential.

Re: Linux

[bussdriver]

Do Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X have enough people checking for security flaws? Or do all these viruses actually HELP windows catch up?

Will windows eventually become better as a result of all these attacks?