Computer viruses are good
The statement will sound surprising to any reader. The first question that will come across in anyone’s mind would be “How can computer viruses be good?”. If we look the positive side of this, may be people can come up with viruses that can:-
- Kill other viruses!
- Encrypts the hard disk so that it cannot be used elsewhere.
- A virus that can replicate on the network to perform some cleaning task.
All of above can obviously probe many issue like:-
- Unauthorized access to any machine
- It would consume network bandwidth and resources.
- A control over the replication of the virus will be a major issue.
- Distinguishing between a good virus and a malicious one!
All the types of viruses above were tried to be designed. However, all of them had some or the other flaws. The ideal way to make a good virus would be to design in such way that it is not malicious, not self replicating; it is able to distinguish itself from other viruses.
The virus should be published and sponsored. This will enable people to develop some trust amongst people.
The virus should be able to authenticate itself using some cryptographic methods.
