🚀 go-pugleaf

In general, I agree with theorems 1, 2, and 3.  I think that those that
deal with the future, are speculative.  However, in the same spirit and
along the same lines, I offer the following:

1. The amount of damage to data and availability done by viruses to date
has been less than users do to themselves by error every day.

2. The press speculation about the DATACRIME virus was much more
damaging than the virus.

3. The amount of damage that has been done to trust within the community
is orders of magnitude worse.

4. Viruses and rumors of viruses have the potential to destroy society's
already fragile trust in our ability to get computers to do that which
we intend while avoiding unintended adverse consequences.

5. We learn from the biological analogy that viruses are self-limiting.

Clinically, if you catch a cold, you will either get over it, or you
will die.  Epidemiologically, a virus in a limited population
will either make its hosts immune, or destroy the population.  Even in
open population, a virus must have a long incubation period and slow
replication in order to be successful (that is, replicate and spread).

6. The current vector for viruses is floppy disks and diskettes, not
programs.  That is to say, it is the media, rather than the programs,
that are moving and being shared.

A virus that is stored on such media will be very persistent.  One
infected diskette pulled from a drawer may began a new cycle.

On the other hand, diskettes as media have a limited life expectancy.
Punched paper lasted just a century; 8.5" floppies only a decade.  The
life of such media is a function of a number of complex factors.  The
success of the current technology augers for a long life, while the pace
of technology suggests that it will be short.

7. AIDS not withstanding, terrorists have more effective and efficient
mechanisms at hand.  Amateurs have a very high vested interest in a
community in which programs can be relied upon to do only what they
advertise.  It is to be hoped that they can be socialized not "to soil
their own sandpiles."

Season's Greetings.

William Hugh Murray, Fellow, Information System Security, Ernst & Young
2000 National City Center Cleveland, Ohio 44114
21 Locust Avenue, Suite 2D, New Canaan, Connecticut 06840