Computer Viruses have now Infected Computer Worms

You know the world of internet security is getting a little hairy when even worm makers can’t keep their code from being infected by computer viruses.

A new report by BitDefender, a top-ranked computer security company specializing in antivirus software, shows that some computer worms have become infected with computer viruses.

Worms are self-replicating pieces of malware. Their creators designed them specifically to be able to replicate themselves across devices, to jump from one machine to another. A good example of a worm would be the ILOVEYOU worm from back in 2000. They normally have some proactive way of encouraging the download and execution of themselves, in the ILOVEYOU worm’s case, a proclamation of love from a colleague.

But worms aren’t the only type of virus. There are others, designed to hide themselves among programs. BitDefender claims that these have infected worms, creating a breed of ‘frankenmalware.’ And the scary part? These weren’t made by humans.

Frankenmalware forms on machines already compromised by a worm. Often, worms make the machine susceptible to other viruses. So once the machine is exposed, another virus comes in and infects the machine. This one replicates itself throughout the computer, until it hits the worm already on the machine. Now, when the worm replicates itself to another computer, it takes the other virus that has hitched along for the ride.

But before you freak out and assume that computers are about to spontaneously evolve, keep in mind that there are very few examples of these things in the wild. Symmantec, another large antivirus firm, hasn’t ever seen one, for example. And we also don’t know if these are just the work of a bored hacker who decided to experiment on one of his machines.

But either way, this frankenmalware will probably be easier to identify. These programs have twice as much malicious code as before, so even if one of the viruses could get past antivirus software, you could still identify the other one. So, bottom line: don’t worry. This is a weird and interesting development, but probably not dangerous.

The Verge Photo by : Drew Coffman