Good Worms

A constant problem with today's internet is (beside the problem of spam) the many viruses and worms that take control of peoples computers. And this is not a new problem. No, it has been around since the 80's at least. So why do we still have this problem? Well, it hasn't become a real problem until the internet took off in the late 90's. As time passed on more and more security holes where found in computer which were exploited by worms and viruses. But these holes were patched and today's operating systems are much more difficult to exploit for a worm.

So why are worms still a problem? Because most users use old unpatched software. Even modern worms use old exploits to propagate through the internet.

This is a very frustrating situation. I wish that we could somehow force the people who uses insecure systems to upgrade. But there might be a way. Using the same holes as the malicious worms use we could create 'Good Worms' which patched systems instead. There is a very interesting article about this in eWeek. Ofcourse there are many potential problems and complaints about this techniques but I think it can be made to work and I think it needs to be done considering the present situation. Make sure to read the article and also read the articles it refers to which argues very well for Good Worms.