This story on \. today reminds me of a “what if” thought that I’ve had once before.
Wired story about scientists who plan to use genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce the population of Dengue-carrying insects. The altered genes cause newly born mosquitoes to die before they are able to breed if they are not supplied with a crucial antibiotic. This is a more aggressive approach than the anti-Malaria work we discussed last year
In the security arms race against black-hat hackers, it’s common for them to copy our security measures and use it against us. Perhaps it’s time we did the same. What if we made malware to infect their malware? I mean, they make malicious stuff to infect victims, so how about us infecting their malware with our payload (malware for malware? If the two terms cancel out, does that make it goodware?) — just like the genetically modified mosquitoes?
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