Computer viruses are 20 years old this week

Well, according to BBC Online they are anyway. Quote:

“US student Fred Cohen was behind the first documented virus that was created as an experiment in computer security.

Now there are almost 60,000 viruses in existence and they have gone from being a nuisance to a permanent menace.

Virus writers have adapted to new technology as it has emerged and the most virulent programs use the net to find new victims and cause havoc. Mr Cohen created his first virus when studying for a PhD at the University of Southern California.

Others had written about the potential for creating pernicious programs but Mr Cohen was the first to demonstrate a working example.

In the paper describing his work he defined a virus as “a program that can ‘infect’ other programs by modifying them to include a … version of itself”.

Mr Cohen added his virus to a graphics program called VD that was written for a make of mini-computer called a Vax.”

Gosh! I used to use a VAX. Which reminds me, did I ever tell you what I did in the Boer War…?.

Things to do when the boss is away

http://www.statusq.org/gems/things2.mpg

(thanks to Quentin for this. I missed it first time around).

The bar-code is dead, courtesy of Wal-Mart. It’ll be a RFID world from now on

Anyone who doubts that we will soon be living in a RFID-tagged world should read this report from the NYT. Quote:

“Some consumer products companies will have to invest millions of dollars to comply with Wal-Mart’s drive to have every carton and palette it receives carry a radio identification tag, according to a report to be released today by A. T. Kearney, a consulting firm.

“It’s a big item that most of them have not budgeted for,” said David Dannon, vice president for the consumer industries and retail products practice at Kearney, a Chicago-based subsidiary of Electronic Data Services.

The technology, known as radio-frequency identification, or RFID, has been used to track containers on trains and ships and in automatic toll systems like E-ZPass. In its new form, it is seen as the long-term successor to bar codes in the retail industry. Radio tags can carry more information about the product, can be scanned more rapidly and can be found even if they are hidden in cartons or behind other products.

Wal-Mart said in June that it expected its top 100 suppliers to adopt the technology by the end of 2004 and the rest of its suppliers to do so in 2005. In late September, the Department of Defense said it would also require major suppliers to use such tags by the end of 2004.”

The Times story is all about the cost to companies of investing in this new technology. But the real cost will be a social one because RFID offers unimaginable opportunities for surveillance — as I discussed some time ago here and here.