A Biological Perspective of Malware

The term “virus” exists both in biology and in computers, but how deep are the similarities and differences between biological viruses and computer malware? The life cycle of biological viruses, which begins in infection of the host and execution of the viral payload, and leads to the immune response of the host and the evolution of both host and virus, has many surprising similarities with malware. Concepts such as code injection, evasion and obfuscation exist both in the biological and computer realms. This webinar provides an understanding of each stage in the life cycle of a biological virus, and compares it to the relevant stage in the life cycle of malware. Surprising differences between malware and virus actions will be shown, and some mechanisms which are used by viruses, but have not been adopted, or even attempted by malware, will be revealed.