🚀 go-pugleaf

Computer ANIMALIES

I'd like to propose a new (?) term for all that kind of
weirdness striking our computer systems: "computer animalies".
It should combine _anomly_ = abnormal behaviour as well as
_animals_ = worms, trojan horses, viruses, bugs and so on.
Furthermore it reminds me on that game called "Animal" that
was updated by a kind of virus mechanism (see SCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN March '85, page 15). The word animaly can easily
be ported into other languages such as french or german as 
it's mainly deducted from the foreign word anomaly. This
should help to avoid calling worms as viruses as many people
did. When they don't know what it is they can call it an
animaly.

Misbehaviour should be taken not from the creator's but from 
the normal user's point of view as most people are (and so am I).
Abnormal behaviour is everything we do not expect from 
our computer system. But this point has to be discussed.

We also could introduce some attributes for those animalies
such as the

  spreading which can be
    sitting : not moving on their own (trojan horses, bugs)
    walking : spreading, but without carrier (worms)
    riding  : spreading, using a carrier (viruses)

  intention
    1st kind: unwanted (bugs)
    2nd kind: intentional misbehaviour, but not intentionally 
              harmful (some testprograms, local controlled
              animalies)
    3rd kind: intentionally harmful (bad viruses, as I think
              all viruses are bad as they destroy integrity of
              the carrier programs when infecting them)

  ...any more ideas?

If there already exists some kind of classification sheme
please let me know.

Second I would like to know what happened to all those
collectors of virus knowledge. They wanted to summarize their
received mail and give it back to us. I've never heard again
from them (but I have to admit that I made no contribution to 
them for I didn't know more than the things that were already
published). Hope this was not a black hole.

This is only a first draft as I think it's time to
call those things by a common name. What's your opinion? 
Please let me know.

Gerald Hackenberg ("Hacki")


Disclaimers:
It's my job here to fight computer animalies for building secure
computer systems.

To all animaly developers (3rd kind, also some of 2nd kind): I wish your 
computer systems to be so ill that you can't create any more of 
these creatures. May they bite you everywhere...