It's impossible to tell for sure, but based on almost three decades of experience as a computer programmer, I'm very skeptical about any sort of "super virus".
It's actually somewhat difficult under ordinary circumstances to get infected with a virus: Either the user has to do something dumb, like run a downloaded executable, or a virus would have to exploit an operating-system-specific security flaw. Such flaws are sadly numerous, but they are also transient and do get fixed. Any exploit available in 2001 would almost certainly have been closed by now. No virus, however sophisticated, can infect your computer by "magic". Malicious parties still have to actively participate in the computer security "arms race".
"A pre-determined code that would be mathematically impossible to accidentally replicate," is a prosaic concept, and using such a code to trigger a virus does not at all substantiate its "scariness" or super-duperness or make it more difficult to detect.
It is not possible to completely disguise a virus so it becomes undetectable. Hiding a virus hiding as or in an ordinary legitimate program is a well-known and well-understood technique, and operating system, application and anti-virus programmers are aware of it and implement countermeasures.
Likewise, the ability to completely obliterate your computer is not a particularly sophisticated capability. Killing your computer is easy; the hard part is infecting your computer in the first place. And killing your computer is the last thing that a sophisticated virus wants to do; it's much better to hijack your computer to act as a "zombie" to participate in non-virus-like denial-of-service attacks or to serve up spam to the infected user.
Google reveals that the "J-Feder 504" is a mechanical time-delay fuse apparently used by the German Army during the Second World War. There does not appear to be any mention of "J-Feder 504" in connection with "computer" or "virus". Google it yourself.
I don't want to diminish the importance of computer security and the threat that malicious software of various kinds pose to the Information Technology infrastructure. But all in all, the linked article looks like hysterical unsubstantiated paranoia. I strongly doubt that any such "super-virus" exists.
1 comment:
It's impossible to tell for sure, but based on almost three decades of experience as a computer programmer, I'm very skeptical about any sort of "super virus".
It's actually somewhat difficult under ordinary circumstances to get infected with a virus:
Either the user has to do something dumb, like run a downloaded executable, or a virus would have to exploit an operating-system-specific security flaw. Such flaws are sadly numerous, but they are also transient and do get fixed. Any exploit available in 2001 would almost certainly have been closed by now. No virus, however sophisticated, can infect your computer by "magic". Malicious parties still have to actively participate in the computer security "arms race".
"A pre-determined code that would be mathematically impossible to accidentally replicate," is a prosaic concept, and using such a code to trigger a virus does not at all substantiate its "scariness" or super-duperness or make it more difficult to detect.
It is not possible to completely disguise a virus so it becomes undetectable. Hiding a virus hiding as or in an ordinary legitimate program is a well-known and well-understood technique, and operating system, application and anti-virus programmers are aware of it and implement countermeasures.
Likewise, the ability to completely obliterate your computer is not a particularly sophisticated capability. Killing your computer is easy; the hard part is infecting your computer in the first place. And killing your computer is the last thing that a sophisticated virus wants to do; it's much better to hijack your computer to act as a "zombie" to participate in non-virus-like denial-of-service attacks or to serve up spam to the infected user.
Google reveals that the "J-Feder 504" is a mechanical time-delay fuse apparently used by the German Army during the Second World War. There does not appear to be any mention of "J-Feder 504" in connection with "computer" or "virus". Google it yourself.
I don't want to diminish the importance of computer security and the threat that malicious software of various kinds pose to the Information Technology infrastructure. But all in all, the linked article looks like hysterical unsubstantiated paranoia. I strongly doubt that any such "super-virus" exists.
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