20 Years of Virii

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Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday November 27, 2003 @11:25AM from the vaccination-please dept.

DenOfEarth writes "News.com has an article outlining that it was around twenty years ago that a computer security reasearcher coined the term 'virus', and how the things have been running amok. Interestingly enough, when said researcher applyed for research funding to look into a blanket solution to this possible 'virus' problem, he was turned down."

10 of 472 comments (clear)

not to nitpick by mabu · 2003-11-27 11:27 · Score: 5, Informative

From dictonary.com:

Q. What is the plural of virus?
A. Viruses.
It is not viri, or (which is worse) virii. True, the word comes directly from Latin, but not all Latin words ending in -us have -i as their plural. Besides, viri is the Latin word for 'men' (plural of vir, man, the root the English virile). There is in fact no written attestation of a Latin plural of virus.

If you would like to pursue the subject further, see the excellent article What's the Plural of `Virus'? at Perl.com. If you have some knowledge of linguistics and Latin, you might be interested in the morphological analysis of the word from the Perseus Project.
1. Re:not to nitpick by D-Cypell · 2003-11-27 11:46 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  He is right guys...
  
  Just checked it with MS Word spellchecker, virii gives me a squigly red underline, but viruses doesnt.
  
  and lets face it, if anyone should know...
2. Re:not to nitpick by RML · 2003-11-27 12:00 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Of course it's spelled right. When in doubt, consult this handy chart: SINGLE PLURAL bonus bonii bus bii campus campii chorus chorii genius geniii plus plii virus virii walrus walrii This comment made of 100% recycled material.
  
  --
  Human/Ranger/Zangband
20 years and a little analogy to biology by EmCeeHawking · 2003-11-27 11:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

Put enough people into a system and it starts to behave like an organic system rather than individuals each doing their thing.

Viruses, worms, trojans are way past the point of being expressions of individualistic derangement.

They represent the nasty side of the biology of the Net: the fact that any simulated or real ecosystem produces more parasites than non-parasites, and that non-parasites have to spend a significant amount of energy fighting off the bugs.

Two decades is not significant in itself, but it should be a stark warning that viruses are not going to go away, that the Net is turning "wild", and that we need something other than daily antivirus updates to keep our systems safe.
Lame viruses nowadays by CausticWindow · 2003-11-27 11:30 · Score: 5, Interesting

Viruses were much cooler in the early nineties. They didn't spread as wildfire on the internet, but at least they did cool thing as code morphing to foil antivirus programs.

And why is this guy surprised that he doesn't get a grant for a "blanket solution" for viruses? I've got a blanket solution for world hunger and cancer, but I'm not getting any reasearch funding either.

--
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
1. Re:Lame viruses nowadays by boots@work · 2003-11-27 11:32 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I'm got a blanket solution for cold mornings.
First PC computer virus by mukund · 2003-11-27 11:47 · Score: 5, Interesting

Here's the company which created the first computer virus for the PC architecture. Interesting story on this page.

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Banu
20 years? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-11-27 11:57 · Score: 5, Interesting

it was around twenty years ago that a computer security reasearcher coined the term 'virus',
Right... except that in David Gerrold's "When H.A.R.L.I.E. was One" (1972) there's this bit of dialogue :
"Do you remember the VIRUS program?"
"Vaguely. Wasn't it some kind of computer disease or malfunction?"
"Disease is closer. There was a science-fiction writer once who wrote a story about it--but the thing had been around a long time before that. ....etc. etc.
(p. 175, in the 1975 Ballantine paperback reprint: I think I have the 1972 serialization in Galaxy somewhere in a box upstairs, but I can't be arsed to dig it out)
Actually, as described in the succeeding pages, VIRUS was more of a worm (a term coined by John Brunner in "The Shockwave Rider", but you knew that already); but the idea of malware called a virus was around in the early 70s at least.
The solution by bigberk · 2003-11-27 12:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

blanket solution to this possible 'virus' problem

There is one solution to the 'virus' problem that everyone in the networking and security field knows about, but which few professionals endorse due to conflicts with business and commerce.

The solution to 'viruses' is diversity in systems. This stems from the biological viewpoint which makes us realize that while one type of system may be vulnerable to a specific flaw, a mix of different systems (each with their own properties) will offer greater resilience.

Think of the Internet, and how much trouble has been caused by Microsoft Windows viruses. Because of the Microsoft monoculture, the Internet has come to the brink of disaster several times (worm outbreaks; flooding of DNS root servers; and most notably, spam and increasingly fragmented global communications as a result).
A summary of the comments by Hal+The+Computer · 2003-11-27 14:06 · Score: 5, Funny

Allow me to tell the impatient what amazingly INSIGHTFUL comments are coming up:

* 39 people reminding you that viruses is the corrent plural, not virii (of which 9 point to dictionary.com)
* 13 people stating that no, virii is correct
* 9 people questioning the manhood, charachter and evolutionary level of the people who defened virii.
* 14 posts about the "good old days"
* 6 comments on how someone should have patented viruses
* 14 informational posts so far
* and only one good joke (hint, you're reading it ;-) )

(BTW: I'm too lazy to actaully count posts, all of the above numbers are 100% statistical, that is to say, 100% fiction.)

--
int main(void){int x=01232;while(malloc(x));return x;}