Microsoft wants to worm its way into your PC

Microsoft wants to worm its way into your PC - Security - Technology

Quote:

Microsoft is taking a leaf out of the virus writers' handbook, hoping to use friendly "worms" to distribute software patches surreptitiously. Like the malicious worms that spread from computer to computer by self-replicating and automatically seeking out new computers to infect, the friendly worms will be used to distribute updates to users without forcing them to download anything from a central server. The research is being spearheaded by a team from Microsoft Research in Britain, and opens up the possibility of worm races between virus writers and the software companies to see who can reach vulnerable machines faster. Unlike malicious worms seek to exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems, the friendly worms would seek to patch those vulnerabilities before the computer is attacked. Milan Vojnovic, who is part of the research team, told New Scientist his friendly worms would be more efficient than malicious worms because they were smarter at seeking out vulnerable, unpatched machines. They could then "infect" a network of computers using the smallest number of probes. Vojnovic said his worms were capable of learning from past experience. The worm starts by randomly probing for an uninfected host and then targets other computers on the same network. If it fails to find a cluster of uninfected hosts it changes its strategy in order to maximise the number of computers it can patch. (continues)

Interesting..... Microsoft planning on sending out "good" viruses. I wonder how long it will take for one of their good worms to turn into a malicious worm.

A phrase taken from Orwell's "1984"......

"Big Brother IS Watching!"

Yes, I saw the movie and this nation is getting closer and closer to Orwell's view of the future. Our civil liberties are slipping away, day by day.
A few more Executive Orders and we'll have none left at all.

MS 'worming' its way into our private lives and our computers is just another step.....

We won't even discuss "Soylent Green"