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When Viruses Infect Worms
An anonymous reader writes "Bitdefender reports that there exist viruses which, when they encounter other viruses, will merge and combine effects so that they create a new virus. 'A virus infects executable files; and a worm is an executable file. If the virus reaches a PC already compromised by a worm, the virus will infect the exe files on that PC — including the worm. When the worm spreads, it will carry the virus with it. Although this happens unintentionally, the combined features from both pieces of malware will inflict a lot more damage than the creators of either piece of malware intended. While most file infectors have inbuilt spreading mechanisms, just like Trojans and worms (spreading routines for RDP, USB, P2P, chat applications, or social networks), some cannot replicate or spread between computers. And it seems a great idea to “outsource” the transportation mechanism to a different piece of malware (i.e. by piggybacking a worm).'"
Did anyone else get a mental image of a bacterium waving a cowboy hat riding a giant sandworm? ...clearly I need more coffee.
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- E. Debs
Only a million trillion times faster than it happens in the real world. I for one welcome our sentient viral overlords.
I don't believe for a second that it's possible for a virus and a worm to combine to produce a more dange
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Whaaaaa... why won't anyone take me seriously? I mean I spammed this on almost every thread and still no one will take me seriously!!?? whaaaa whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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Did anyone else start reading the summary assuming it was a story on biology? Here's how I first read it:
"Bitdefender reports that there exist viruses which, when they encounter other viruses, will merge and combine effects so that they create a new virus. 'A virus infects executable flies;
Instead of staring at the word "flies" which was actually "files", instead my eyes backed up and were focused on executable. What did it mean for a fly to be executable?
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