The Digital Armageddon

The worms that have shaken the Windows world so far are nothing compared to what is still to come. Today's worms are merely programs that hop from one PC to the next through known security holes. You get the epidemic under control with security patches and removal tools. At the latest after the next update. Over time the base the worm can infect keeps shrinking, and so it vanishes from the scene again. That is why virus authors rely on several ways for a worm to spread. If one gets plugged, perhaps three others remain. This method may let the worm population survive a while longer, but it is only a reprieve before the final extermination. The ability to find new means of transmission is the holy grail. Viruses mastered morphing back in the 80s. The program code altered itself to avoid detection by antivirus software. The code fragmented itself and every descendant looked different. But it was still the same code. It was simply arranged a little differently. Parts of the code, however, were so distinctive that even with a high degree of morphing the virus could still be found. Now, if a virus could change its code in such a way that it could uncover new security holes and use them for itself, it would be nearly impossible to get at it with the old methods. Ever new variants of the worm would generate themselves and be put into circulation. With genetic programming this would be possible. A technique that will turn the world upside down over the next ten years. Programs are no longer created by ordinary programming. A goal is specified, an assembler is handed a few functions, and at first it simply programs away at random. Programs are generated, and those that come closest to the goal are crossed with the best of the other programs. Poor variants are discarded. The so-called rating. The human only has to state a goal, e.g. “Hello World”, and after a while the assembler spits it out. So goes the dream. Reality currently looks a bit more complicated. These assemblers do produce programs that reach the goal, but deliver a result with millions of lines of code. Completely useless, since too big and therefore too slow. But the algorithms are getting ever more cunning and the computers ever faster. One not-so-distant day, genetic programming will be reality. And one day a genetic program will also be capable of finding new ways to spread to other computers. Once it finds a method, it has already transferred the first program, itself, which then immediately tries to spread further. Via the possible and the as yet impossible methods. Once a certain base is infected with various versions of the worm, the plague can no longer be dealt with by today's means, patching and virus scanners. More and more worm variants with ever more sophisticated methods would flood the Internet. If on top of that the various worm variants could mingle on their journey through the Internet and thereby produce even better offspring, then the digital Armageddon is a foregone conclusion. Descendants with thousands of forefathers would meet other descendants with likewise thousands of forefathers. Each could learn the other's methods and so create an even better child that possesses the virtues of both fathers. Imagine thousands upon thousands of computers working on new methods of infecting machines that are still protected, machines that are already patched. What succeeded in the beginning with a single computer will no longer be stoppable.