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"Friendly" Computer Viruses That Are Good For Your Computer

by Tim Stevens on February 15, 2008 at 11:06 AM

Friendly Viruses Set to Race Malicious Ones

Everyone likes to race, whether it's cars or skateboards or just people on two feet. Researchers at Microsoft are looking to apply this notion of competition to the world of viruses, with the hope of creating friendly worms to compete against malicious ones.

Similar to the current research that use genetically-modified viruses to deliver medication or fight cancer, the "good" computer viruses that Microsoft is working on would take advantage of a given security loophole in computer systems. These viruses would spread themselves out like self-replicating worms by finding computers capable of being infected, then installing themselves onto those compuers and patching any flaws or security holes.

In theory, these angel viruses would make the computer safe from any virus that would attempt to exploit the same loophole -- assuming they get to the exposed computers faster than the real viruses do.

This is all theory for now, though, so in the mean time, keep that virus-scanner updated.

From slashdot and New Scientist Tech

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Tags: Microsoft, security, Viruses, Worms

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